All The World's Wonders
by R-dude
Summary: The Grand Line. The sea where dreams and goals go to die. And yet, it is there that Naruto hopes to achieve his.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes: ** My gosh, would you look at the time? It's new crossover time! Once again born out of my disgust for the already existing fics in this category. "If you want something done, do it yourself" is my new motto. None of my fics are abandoned, so no worries there.

As for the story itself, I will reveal nothing. The setting is easy enough to figure out, and everything else will become clear with time. The first chapter is admittedly small, but that won't be a regular occurence.

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Naruto nor One Piece, and make no profits from this work of fiction.

Without further ado, I present to you:

**~N~**

**All The World's Wonders**

**~N~**

Naruto supposed that all great stories must include a hero and a monster. His own was no exception. Rather than end with the hero vanquishing the monster, however, his story started with it.

Indeed, everyone in the island of Konoha knew the story of what happened twenty years ago. Of how the heroic Mayor Minato Namikaze defeated the Devil Fruit user rampaging throughout the island at the cost of his own life. However, mothers will whisper to their children when telling the tale, the Fruit that the attacker was using was not an ordinary Devil Fruit, if indeed any Devil Fruit can be called that. The kids will gasp fearfully and ask why. The mother will then say that it was a demonic Devil Fruit, one of a set of nine and the strongest of them all. Its user had been a true monster, impossible to reason with and slaughtering indiscriminately before finally being put down.

Demonic Devil Fruits have a few peculiarities, if one is to believe the legends. Upon the death of its user, the Fruit will spawn once more at the exact place of death, waiting to be consumed once again. Like all other Devil Fruits, Demonic Devil Fruits respawn at a random place if destroyed before being consumed. However, legend in Konoha has it that if a Demonic Devil Fruit is destroyed or remains uneaten for a period of time, the land around it will be cursed. Many a tale exist of fallen countries, brought low by misfortune and circumstance because of such Fruits.

Which was why, Naruto was told as soon as he was old enough to understand the words, the late Mayor had force-fed him the Akuma-Akuma no Mi, Model: Kyuubi, mere seconds before succumbing to his wounds.

Naruto did not buy it for a second. He'd been just a newborn, then. Scarcely a few days old, if the old man was to be believed. Why was _he_ fed the Fruit? Had his parents slighted the late Mayor in some way? Why not, well, _anybody_ else? Granted, Demonic Devil Fruits had a terrible reputation, but surely _someone_ would have wanted one of the strongest Mythical Zoan Fruits in existence? Konoha did not lack for strong fighters, but still. Mythical Zoan Fruits are said to be even more rare than the Logia types.

But no, he'd been dumped with that honor and had been trying to live with it for the last nineteen years. Twenty in two months. The effects of the Kyuubi user's attack could still be felt to this day. The battle between him and Mayor Namikaze had left Konoha island physically scarred and many families decimated. Naruto did not begrudge the people their sorrow and anger towards the attacker, but neither could he excuse their behavior against him. Of course, he'd never been harmed or mistreated in any way, but everyone knew that he was the current Kyuubi user, and they seemed unable to look past that, as if expecting him to lose his mind and go on a rampage at any given moment. He'd been alone all his life, without friends or anyone he could really relate to, considering his status as an orphan.

But, Naruto supposed, it hadn't been all bad. The newly reinstated ex-Mayor, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had taken baby Naruto in and raised him to the best of his abilities. The fact that the people of Konoha saw this as the Mayor keeping a close eye on the Kyuubi user was irrelevant to him. Sarutobi loved him and had done his best to raise him. He needed no one else. He did not doubt that it was Sarutobi's influence and nothing else that allowed him to be employed and be treated fairly by others.

"Naruto!"

"Eh?" The voice yelling at him startled him, and the saw he'd been holding slipped and dug deep into his thumb. He dropped it with a hiss, bringing his now free hand to hold the wrist of the injured one. It bled freely, crimson liquid flowing down his hand and dripping to the ground.

The man who had yelled at him abandoned his own post and ran towards him, dropping a hammer in the process. He was a fellow in his fifties, with graying black hair and many lines on his face.

"Shit, sorry kid," the man swore as he came to a stop next to him "I didn't mean to startle you, but you'd dozed off something fierce and you've been out of it all morning. Shouldn't you have that looked at? Or at least wrapped with something?"

It stung something fierce, certainly, but Naruto did nothing beyond grit his teeth and hold his wrist. At his boss' words, he shook his head.

"Nah, don't worry. It should be fine, give it a few seconds." Saying this, he raised his injured hand so that his boss could more easily see. Indeed, the bleeding had stopped and the cut, though deep, was slowly closing. In front of the older man's wide eyes, the torn muscle and skin knit itself back together. After it was done, Naruto clenched and then relaxed his hand, making sure everything was in working order. Not even a scar remained.

"See?"

His question shook the older man out of his daze, and he looked at Naruto with slightly more subdued eyes.

"Oh, that. I'd … forgotten about that." The man said at the awkward silence.

And really, that was the best that Naruto could have hoped for from anyone in Konoha. Sometimes, people would forget that he was a Demon user and treat him normally. He'd been lucky with Beor, his current employer. He'd worked for him for the last two years, and they'd developed an amiable enough relationship. Naruto worked hard and was good company, and that was all Beor cared for after the first few months of wary glances.

"I guess I should get back to work. Sorry I'm slacking off today."

"It's no problem, lad." Beor waved his concerns away. "In fact, you can stop early today, I can take it from here. Beli for your thoughts, though? What's troubling you?"

Naruto released a sigh, running his newly healed hand through his spiky blond hair. There was no easy way to go about this, and he'd been mulling it over all day. He'd planned to tell Beor a week before, but kept putting it off. The older man was one of the only people he had regular and normal contact with, and he was afraid of losing that. There was nothing for it anymore, though.

"I'm not renewing our contract after today, Beor." He said eventually. He and Beor had walked from the yard with the lumber inside the shop proper. He peered at Naruto curiously.

"You never complained about the pay, but I know you've been gathering money. I can give you a raise if that's what this is about."

"Heavens, no. The pay was fine, and I'm grateful for everything you've done for me, but I have other plans for my future, starting today."

The older man watched him intentleor was thinking.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" Beor asked him, suddenly, catching Naruto completely by surprise. He gaped for a few seconds before stammering a reply.

"What? No, nothing of the sort. I'm not planning to leave today or anything like that."

His weak lying wasn't convincing anyone and he knew it. He stopped speaking, lest he make a fool of himself further.

"It really wasn't that hard to figure it out. You, quitting like that? And that boat of yours that you got four months ago? It don't take much to understand."

After composing himself, he spoke again.

"Please don't tell anyone."

"Aye, lad. If that be your wish, I won't."

"Thanks Beor. I guess I should get going now. Thanks for letting me off early."

"Where ya going so soon? Wait a spot." Beor told him as he walked briskly to the counter, retrieving a small pouch from a cupboard and tossing it to him. Naruto caught it reflexively and heard the sound of coins scrapping against each other.

"What's this?"

"Your final payment for this week. Were you really going to leave without it?"

Naruto weighed the pouch in his hand. It was heavier and bigger than he remembered.

"This is at least twice what it should be."

"Consider it a going away present."

Naruto was at a loss for words, and it was just as well, because all his mental faculties were busy preventing his eyes from watering. No one else besides the old man had ever been kind to him just for the sake of being kind to him. No one.

"Beor … this is- … I…" Thankfully his inarticulate rambling was stopped by his former boss, who had walked around the counter and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"You're a good kid, Naruto. No matter what Fruit you happened to eat or what other people say, you're a good kid."

What could he say to that? Nothing immediately jumped to mind.

"Go, lad." Beor continued, finally releasing his shoulder. "I hope you find what you're looking for, out there."

Naruto nodded, not trusting himself with speaking, and all but bolted from the woodworker's store. His abrupt exit drew a few reproachful glances from passerbys, but he ignored them.

He walked through the main town of the island, idly examining the buildings and roads that he wouldn't see again for a long time, hopefully. Konoha was a beautiful island, with lush vegetation and beautiful villages. The people were mild and positive. Because of its isolation, Konoha was a self-sufficient island that rarely traded or had visitors. Its position in the Grand Line and the fact that it practically poked the Calm Belt ensured that it did not lack for strong defenders.

Naruto was heading to the house of its strongest defender, as it happened. The Mayor's house. _His_ house, too, for as long he remembered himself. It was a solid, wooden building of two floors in the center of the city, not far from the Town Hall, where the old man's office was.

Naruto was thankful that Sarutobi was working. He wanted to avoid a confrontation for many reasons, not the least of which being that if the old Mayor wanted to stop him, he could and would. It was regrettable that he would not get to say goodbye to the only man that had ever loved him and cared for him, but he was sure the old man would understand, in time. He would try to write as soon as he could, though ships rarely reached Konoha from anything further than a couple islands away.

The Sarutobi household was tastefully decorated with family relics of old, though not to the point of it being too much. Scrolls lined most of its surfaces, from libraries to cabinets. Naruto's own room was on the second floor. Many of the rooms in the large house were empty ever since Sarutobi's three children moved out, many years ago. Naruto never had much interaction with any of them, save for the old man's grandson, some six years younger than Naruto himself. He would occasionally follow him around and Naruto would show him and his two friends some of the basic tricks the boy's grandfather had taught him.

Naruto climbed the stairs two at a time. Now that it was nearly time he could hardly contain his excitement. He ran into his room, and there he paused. He'd spent his entire life in this room. He looked around at his few personal possessions. Few, because the old man was not big on presents and even if he was, Naruto never placed much importance in material possessions. He'd always saved whatever money he made since he started working, despite the old man's protests.

He had already procured a pair of sturdy leather packs, in which he swiftly placed everything he would take with him. A small chest with his savings and his clothes on one pack, and the supplies he'd secretly stashed in his room in the other.

That was all. A sad fact that this was all he would take with him from his hometown, but nonetheless true. He'd already bought sailing supplies and placed them on the boat, but they didn't count, in any case. He hefted both bags on his shoulders and headed downstairs, leaving the door to his room open.

He was halfway through to the entrance when he was stopped by the most terrifying sound he had ever heard in his life.

"And where are you going, burdened like that?"

He closed his eyes, counted down from ten, and opened them again. Nope, not his imagination. He could feel the presence of his guardian to his right. He turned his head slightly and finally saw him, sitting on a wooden chair.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked pretty unassuming. Dressed in a simple shirt and trousers, he could pass as any random villager. The only particularly distinguishing feature about him was his beard, along with the wooden pipe held up to his mouth with a casual hand.

"… I can explain?" Naruto tried, desperately trying to buy time and figure out a way to not have his plans crash and burn around him.

Sarutobi's so far deceptively calm visage cracked and Naruto shuddered under the man's glare.

"Give me one good reason not to take Enma down from the wall and give you a sound thrashing."

Despite himself, Naruto's gaze landed on the massive bo staff that hung proudly on the wall, a relic from Sarutobi's more active days. He must have been feeling particularly cruel, to threaten him like this. Sarutobi did not _need_ Enma to beat Naruto. Hell, he barely needed a single hand to do it. He'd only ever been on its receiving end once, and it was not an experience he wanted to repeat ever again.

"Naruto." This time the voice wasn't threatening, it was merely exasperated.

"I'm leaving, gramps." He said simply. There was nothing to it. He would not lie to the man who raised him, even when he had no obligation to do so. Sarutobi had done a lot for him, and he deserved nothing but honesty.

"You are doing no such thing."

"But I am, and you cannot stop me."

The Mayor's eyes narrowed, and Naruto repressed a gulp when he saw the old man's fingers twitch.

"I certainly can, young one."

Naruto shook his head. "Maybe you can stop me now, but not indefinitely. I _will_ find a way off this island, with or without your permission."

"I did not train you all these years for you to run headlong into danger like this. That's not why I taught you these skills."

"I'll be forever thankful to you, gramps, but I'm leaving regardless."

The old man looked clearly puzzled. This was good, because it lowered his chances of receiving a very painful beating.

"I knew your intentions, of course. Ever since you became interested in sailing, took that apprenticeship in the supply ship and finally bought that galley of yours. I thought it a hobby, or a passing fancy. I never realized your resolve was this firm."

He paused, rising from his chair and approaching Naruto with slow, deliberate steps. Naruto felt it best to let his packs on the floor, for now. Sarutobi stopped, a step in front of him.

"Why is this so important to you, Naruto?"

"I need to do this."

"Why? Why can't you stay in Konoha?"

"_Why_?" Naruto all but spat the word. "You ask me why? Tell me who my parents were, and I will stay. Show me how to control my powers, and I will stay. Make the villagers look at me and see something other than the killer of their relatives, and I will stay. Until you can do any of that, old man, don't stop me."

The eldest Sarutobi flinched as if struck. His shoulders slumped, and he looked a decade older than his already quite advanced age. Naruto regretted the harshness of his tone, but his words were true.

"You know I can't do that, Naruto. Control will come with time and practice and experience. I regret terribly that I cannot tell you of your parentage, but I made a vow long ago to someone very dear to me. As for the villagers, give them time, Naruto. And you know you're not helping the situation with your self-imposed isolation."

All true, and all things he'd heard before. He had first asked after his parents when he was old enough to understand the concept of parents, and he had never stopped asking.

He shook his head. He would not argue about this.

"Not enough, old man. I'm sorry, but my decision won't change. I'm leaving. Today."

Sarutobi looked at him, and he looked extremely troubled and conflicted. They stared at each other for a full minute, before Naruto broke the silence.

"Please don't stop me, gramps. Please don't stand against me. Not you, gramps. Not you too."

Sarutobi's eyes softened.

"Nobody is against you, Naruto." He whispered.

Naruto shook his head. Gramps wasn't getting it. This wasn't getting them anywhere. Naruto had no reason to stay. He had no family in Konoha, and no friends, either. The best he could hope for was people who tolerated and on occasion helped him. There was no other Uzumaki in Konoha, meaning that his parents probably weren't even natives. There was not a single mention of an Uzumaki in the Town Hall's archives, he'd checked.

The world was too big for him to just shrug his shoulders, stay in Konoha and be miserable.

"Gramps, I'm leaving. I'd rather we parted in good terms."

Sarutobi sighed, and Naruto held his breath. Thing would get a lot better or a lot worse in the coming seconds.

"You can't sail your galley alone for long, Naruto. The Grand Line is dangerous."

Where was the old man going with this? "I won't be alone for long. I won't die at sea."

"Do you even have a Log Pose?"

That left him without a response, because what _could_ he say that wouldn't get him in heaps of trouble?

Sarutobi's eyes narrowed again.

"You stole one, didn't you?"

"I prefer the term borrowed. You _are_ my gramps, after all."

The Mayor sighed, rubbing his eyes with his fingers.

"Which one?"

"The one in the third drawer of your desk." Naruto sheepishly admitted, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

Sarutobi nodded mechanically.

"Wait here." He ordered –and Naruto did not doubt it was an order—and walked further into the house. A minute later, he returned, holding a Log Pose in his hand. He offered it to Naruto, who received it with confusion. He'd just admitted to stealing a Log Pose, why was the old man giving him another?

Then he noticed the way it simply spun in place, and the label with the word 'Konoha' written over it.

"This is …"

"An Eternal Log Pose to Konoha, yes. For when you return."

Naruto simply stared at the wildly spinning needle, unable to open his mouth to speak. When a drop of water fell on the Pose, he wiped it away irritably. When another fell, and then another, he realized that they were coming from him. He jerked his hand to wipe at his eyes, but it was too late to stop the tears that had already been spilt. He looked up at his guardian for the first eighteen years of his life, to see him smiling a kind smile back at him.

Pose held tight in his palm, he rushed forward and engulfed the old man in a hug, earning a surprised laugh from him, before he felt hands –surprisingly firm for his age—wrap around him.

They held each other for a few moments, expressing in action what neither felt comfortable expressing with words. Even after they parted, they held each other at arm's length.

"These old bones can't take many more of these hugs, you know."

Naruto didn't know what the old man was on about. Whenever he hugged him his body was as tough as steel underneath his baggy clothes, and his grips were always level and firm, as if he was controlling his strength not to crush whatever he held.

"Now listen," Sarutobi told him, forcing him to pay attention again. "I know the Log Pose you took. It will eventually lead you to Sabaody Archipelago. When you go there, look for a man named Rayleigh. Last I heard he was getting in the coating business. Tell him that the Professor sent you."

"The Professor?" Naruto asked, confused. Sarutobi only smiled.

"Never mind that. Just see if you can find that brat Rayleigh, okay? He will help you."

"Okay gramps." Rayleigh, Rayleigh. Where had he heard that name before? No matter. He shouldn't get distracted.

"I find myself having to resist the urge to give you basic sailing advice." Sarutobi said, smiling.

"I guess I should have expected it."

Was it his imagination, or were the old man's eyes watering?

"Be safe, Naruto. And remember; admirable as your quest to discover your parentage is, be careful of dwelling too much on the past, lest you let the present slip by your fingers."

"Don't go all old man philosophy on me, gramps."

"I _am_ an old man, you know."

With this, they let each other go. Naruto hefted his packs again, barely registering their weight.

"Goodbye, old man. Thank you for everything." He reached over and opened the door.

Sarutobi's look was sad, and there was no doubting the wetness in his eyes now.

"I wish you would stay, Naruto."

Naruto stopped at the doorframe. He looked behind him at his foster father, favoring him with a sad smile of his own.

"There's nothing for me here besides you, gramps." With that, he walked out, heading towards the cape where he'd docked the boat.

"That's not true, Naruto." Sarutobi whispered into the silence of his, once again, empty house. "And I wish you would realize that."

Despite the sorrow of parting with the only parental figure in his life, Naruto was feeling surprisingly light as he all but floated towards his docked ship. Though he was leaving him, Naruto had managed to say his goodbyes and even receive his mentor's approval, which was more than he had ever dreamed of. Now he could leave with no regrets and nothing holding him back.

He drew weird looks from the people, because it was rare to see him in such a great mood, especially while carrying two heavy-looking and filled to the brim packs. He soon left the city proper behind, walking through the forests surrounding it and leading out to sea.

His ship was waiting there. It was a ship barely big enough to be called a galley, with two masts. He'd decided to buy that specific one because he'd spent a few years on its crew, sailing between Konoha and Go island and become familiar enough with it to sail it alone.

He'd been saving all his paychecks since he started working, more than ten years ago, and all his allowances from the old man, to buy this boat and the necessary supplies. Sailing alone was tough, and he hoped he didn't get caught up in any storms, but his test runs so far had shown that he could do it alone with fair weather. Hopefully, he wouldn't be alone for long. His first stop at Go island should take care of that.

Sometime along the trek, he found himself whistling a merry tune. Everything was going according to plan. Better, in fact.

Exiting the forest, he followed the track all the way to a cove. There lay a small pier, next to which his galley waited, just as he'd left it.

Except for the man waiting on the pier, sitting on top of a trunk with his feet crossed and a bored look in his face. He was wearing a lightly colored haori, wooden sandals and had a katana strapped to his waist. His hair was dark, relatively long and spiky on the back of his head.

As he approached, Naruto frowned at Sasuke Uchiha. He stopped in front of the other man, who had, for all intents and purposes, barred his path.

"Can I help you?" He asked. Sasuke ignored his question and continued to give him a piercing stare.

"You're leaving." He stated.

"An astounding observation, Uchiha." Naruto drawled. He knew of Sasuke Uchiha, and held little love for him. They'd often cross paths, though they never actually interacted. Sasuke was the town's pride. He'd survived the adversity of the death of his family and risen quickly, studying under master after master and taking over his family's business with great success. He had people catering to his every need and bowing to his every whim. Naruto held little affection for the Uchiha survivor.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to get on my ship."

The Uchiha regarded him evenly for a few moments longer, causing Naruto's irritation to flare.

"I'm coming with you." He suddenly announced. Naruto simply stared incredulously at him for a moment. Only a moment, though.

"The hell you are, bastard!"

"No need to shout," Sasuke drawled. "Besides, you need help. How far do you expect to go on your own?"

"I don't need your help, and I have my own plans. No thank you."

Only now did the Uchiha seem even slightly perturbed, and his brow furrowed.

"I can help you. I have money, enough to bankroll us all the way to Fishman island."

"I don't need your money Uchiha. And what makes you think I'm going to Fishman island?"

"You're sailing the Grand Line. When a guy like you does that, they go all the way. You'll try for the New World eventually, I know it."

Naruto frowned.

"And what makes you think you know the first thing about me?"

"Why are you leaving?"

"Do you always ignore other people's questions to ask your own?"

"Why are you leaving Konoha?"

Naruto sighed, lowering his packs to the ground to free his arms so he could rub at his eyes.

"You think I'm after One Piece? Is that the conclusion you arrived to after knowing me so well?"

"I don't know you, and I made no assumptions about your goal. That's why I'm asking you."

"Come now. Don't tell me you don't know. That you haven't noticed."

"Noticed what exactly?"

"How everyone treats me. How am I supposed to stay in a place that would sooner see me leave, or worse?"

"Is that why you're leaving then? Because of your Devil Fruit?"

Naruto shook his head.

"No, but it's as good a start as any. There's no reason to _stay _here, and I want to see the world. Besides that, my reasons are my own. Why do _you_ want to sail?"

"And why should I tell you when you refused to tell me?"

"That's my ship you're trying to sail with." Naruto said as he pointed at the waiting galley. "I'm its captain. Like it or not, if you want to come you'll have to obey my commands. If you can't do that, then there's no way I'm taking you with me."

Naruto was satisfied to note the flash of irritation in the Uchiha's eyes and his mouth pressing into a thin line before he relaxed again.

"I will tell you. But after I do, I expect the same courtesy."

Naruto said nothing, only looked at the dark-haired man expectantly.

"You know of my family's deaths, I assume." At Naruto's nod, he continued. "Contrary to popular belief, my big brother did not die with my parents. He yet lives."

"He does?"

Sasuke nodded. "Indeed. In fact, he was the one who killed them."

Naruto blinked once, twice, digesting this new piece of information. Itachi Uchiha had been reported dead along with Fugaku Uchiha and Mikoto Uchiha, slain in their house when Sasuke happened to have gotten lost on his way home one evening.

"My ambition ... is to sail the Grand Line and become strong. Strong enough to fight and kill Itachi."

Revenge on the murderer of his parents. Naruto could respect that, even if he didn't fully understand it. Nevertheless, he knew that if anyone had taken out the old man he'd be after their heads.

"Why can't you train here? From listening to people talk, you're the second coming of the third Mayor himself."

Sasuke scowled. "There are a lot of strong people in Konoha, granted. But I have felt my progress stifled for years now. My rate of growth has shrunk to unacceptable levels. There is only so much one can learn from practice and lectures. Experience is needed. Real fights, diverse environments. No, Konoha has nothing left to offer me."

"Why me and my ship? Why not wait for a trade vessel and board that?"

"_You _will sail the Grand Line. The trade vessel will go to a safe destination to deliver lumber. That won't help me. Besides, I have a feeling that we're going to be attracting a lot of attention soon."

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't know you very well, but I do know that you're not subtle. Whatever it is you want to achieve, it must be big, and it will cause noise. Am I wrong?"

Naruto regarded Sasuke. He'd never thought much of the Uchiha. He still didn't like him, but maybe it was time to reconsider that opinion.

"I don't know. I have no intention of becoming a pirate, if that's what you're hoping for."

"We'll see."

But Naruto had already moved on from that. "My goal … is to discover who my parents are and what happened to them, and to learn to control the powers of the nine-tailed demon fox."

"No matter how many toes you step on in the process?"

"No matter how many toes I step on in the process."

Sasuke nodded, as if confirming something to himself.

"Yeah, this ship will do me fine."

"I still didn't say you get to come!"

Sasuke smiled and rose, taking the sizable trunk in hand walking up the ramp towards the galley.

"You totally did."

"I did not!" Naruto protested as he picked up his packs and followed the Uchiha on board his ship.

"Hey, you should be glad. You got a first mate without even lifting a finger."

"Who said I'm making you my first mate, bastard?"

Despite Naruto's numerous –not to mention, _loud_—protests, Sasuke settled himself in one of the rooms, and the both of them prepared the ship to set sail. The Uchiha knew his stuff, even if he was unfamiliar with the ship, and Naruto had to admit that it was much easier with two people than one.

Slowly, the galley left the small cove, heading southeast along the coast. From a few miles away they would go to open sea and head towards their first destination.

"Uzumaki!" Sasuke called from the deck.

"What!?" Naruto hollered back, while trying to fit his clothes in the captain's cabin.

"Come out. You'll want to see this."

Naruto sighed. It was probably something stupid. Nevertheless, he exited the interior of the ship to find Sasuke staring out of the railing, toward the harbor that had just come into view.

"What is it this time you—" He didn't complete his sentence, his mouth freezing mid-speech as he stared at the piers of Konoha's harbor.

It was full of people. People waving and shouting at them. Many of them he recognized. There, at the front of the group, was the old man himself, the Mayor, waving merrily at him. Next to him was his son Asuma, and his daughter Sona along with his grandson Konohamaru and his two friends. There was Beor, who was cheering wildly, along with several of his old bosses and coworkers over the years. He didn't recognize the rest, but they must have been there for Sasuke or simply along due to group mentality.

They were all waving at them and cheering for them and wishing them a good voyage as the ship drew farther and farther from the port.

"Those guys…" Naruto said, and if he wiped at his eyes it was only to get rid of a stupid bug, nothing else.

"Yeah." Sasuke agreed, his voice unusually subdued.

The watched the port until it was completely out of view, both silent. Eventually, Naruto broke it.

"Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"If you abandon my crew at some point because you think I have nothing else to _offer _you, I will hunt you down and kill you, myself."

"Don't worry, that's not appropriate first mate behavior."

Naruto turned his head to glare at the Uchiha, and his eyes flashed red for a brief instance. Sasuke saw this, but didn't comment on it. He sighed.

"I won't abandon you. I will help you achieve your goals, and achieve mine in the process. You have my word. Sound fair?"

Naruto still regarded him with suspicion, but he nodded tersely. Sasuke tapped the wooden railing with his hands.

"Alright then, captain, where are we headed? Shouldn't you be checking the Pose by now?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "The Pose? What Pose?"

Sasuke paled. "You do have a Log Pose, don't you?"

"And you wait until we've already sailed to check this?"

"I didn't think even _you'd_ be enough of a loser to try to sail the Grand Line without a Log Pose!"

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean, bastard? And I'll have you know I have a perfectly good Log Pose right here." Saying this, he procured the Log Pose he'd swiped-, that is to say, _borrowed_, from the old man, and presented it to Sasuke. He took it in hand and inspected it.

"Okay, so you do. Then why are we not following it?"

"Because we're heading to Go island, first."

"Why? I checked the storeroom, you have enough supplies here to last us weeks. Besides, this Pose doesn't point to Go island. How do you suppose we go there?"

"I've sailed between the two islands enough times to know how to go without a Pose, alright? And will you stop doubting me already? That's going to get old very soon. I have a perfectly good reason why we're going to Go island."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

"The reason, genius, is that even though I can navigate us to Go island, that's as far as my navigational skills go. Unless you've been holding out on me regarding your own skills, we'll be dead before we reach the next island on the Pose's journey. This is the Grand Line. Crazy shit happens."

"So what do you propose we do?"

Naruto sighed. "I just told you, didn't I? We're going to Go island. There, we will pick up our navigator."

Sasuke still looked dubious, but was obviously making an effort to trust Naruto, if only a little.

"He'd better be some genius if you want him to take us through the Grand Line."

Naruto smiled.

"Don't worry," he said "he _is_."

**~N~**


	2. Chapter 2

**.**

**~N~**

**All The World's Wonders, Chapter 2**

**~N~**

It had been a full day since the beginning of their journey, and things between Naruto and Sasuke had not grown any calmer.

"Would you quit your whining already! I told you that I know where we're going, didn't I?"

"And I told you, I've been to Go Island before and you're taking us a few degrees off course!"

Both young men were standing on the deck facing each other, irritation clear in both their faces.

"For the last time, we are _not_ off course. And even if we were, it's not by enough that we'll miss the island entirely. I've traveled this route dozens of times, I think I know how to take us there."

Sasuke's disagreeable mutter did not go unnoticed, nor was it appreciated by his blond captain. Naruto's brow twitched.

"I am _not_ above chucking you overboard, you know."

"Unlike _some_ people, I can swim. And when I climb back up on the boat, I'll _cut_ you. You won't die from this, I know of your healing rate. But it will be very, very painful."

He clenched his fists as Sasuke slipped his palm around the handle of his sword.

Contrary to Naruto's original thought, Sasuke's sword was not a katana. It had a straight edge instead of the customary curved one, and the hilt was angular and straight, coming together seamlessly with the sheath. Naruto knew nothing of swords so he couldn't name its type, but it was impressive.

"Bastard Uchiha! You wanna go?"

"This coming from a guy who can't even take us in a straight line towards Go Island? Bring it on, loser."

Squaring off within touching distance, the two glared at each other as they prepared to attack.

Both saw it at the same time. From glaring at each other, their heads turned to gaze at the horizon. There, in the distance, a landmass was being faintly outlined. Go Island.

Naruto scowled.

"Not. A. Word." He growled. Sasuke grinned. Their course had, in fact, been a little off.

"I'm serious. If you say anything, I will _hurt you_."

Sasuke didn't say anything, he didn't need to. His grin had evolved into a self-satisfied smirk that said it all. Naruto sulked for the duration of the hours it took them to finally reach the main port of Go Island.

Go Island was several times smaller than Konoha, with a similarly smaller community. Nevertheless, it had two sizable towns a respectable port that was a hot-spot for fishermen and traders.

As they slowly got into port and found empty place, Sasuke decided to break the silence.

"So who are after?"

"His name is Shikamaru Nara."

"Nara, eh?"

"You know him?"

Sasuke shook his head. "His father, Shikaku Nara. My family has business with them occasionally. I met them once, when I was small. That was before … well, _before_."

Naruto threw a sympathetic look at Sasuke, earlier aggression forgotten.

"I see. Well, Shikamaru is Shikaku's son and he's our age."

"And you say he's a genius navigator?"

"No, I said he was a genius _and_ a navigator. It's just that he took navigating as a hobby. As lazy as he is, you wouldn't believe that he's been sailing around these parts of the Grand Line for the last seven years, but he has. It's his fascination, I suppose."

Naruto's self-satisfied smirk must have clued Sasuke to something, because he threw the blond a suspicious look.

"You had something to do with it, didn't you? That's why you're so smug."

Naruto's smugness became obvious at his lack attempts to even deny it.

"I may have had some small part to play in steering Shikamaru towards navigating."

Despite himself, Sasuke was impressed.

"That must have been at least, well, seven years ago."

"Yes," Naruto nodded "I've known that I would sail for a long time now, and I met Shikamaru in the beginning of my sailing apprenticeship. We talked and came to a sort of accord. It is time to collect."

"Nice." Sasuke approved.

"A word of warning though. Never let him talk you into playing board games with him. Ever. Of any kind."

Sasuke threw Naruto a smirk. "I think I can handle a board game, even if it is with a genius. I'm not so bad, myself, you know. Loser."

If he expected Naruto to get riled, he was in for a surprise. Naruto only smiled.

"Your funeral. Now look sharp, we've reached the dock."

It took some maneuvering from the two men, but they managed to dock the galley safely and lower a ramp.

"You wait here." Naruto said, raising an open palm to stop Sasuke as he made to follow him.

"This port is plenty safe," the Uchiha protested "It's not like our ship will get stolen or something. Why do I have to stay behind?"

"Because I need to speak to Shikamaru alone. And because I need someone here to receive some orders I will make."

"But you didn't know I would come with you! That couldn't have factored into your plans." Sasuke accused, frustrated at being left to die of boredom in the ship.

Naruto smiled at him. "True, but plans must be flexible. Besides, you might as well be useful since you came here. Now stay put, I'll be back before sundown."

"At least tell me what it is you'll be ordering."

"Booze, of course. Lots and lots of booze."

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. Go Island was famous for its alcohol, and if the previous day had been any indication, he'd definitely need it.

"Good idea." He nodded.

Naruto left the bored Uchiha and headed deeper inland, going through the lazy port with no hurry, taking in the sights around. Go port was sizable, but not particularly active at this time. A few fishermen were working on their boats, and a big trading ship was unloading, but that was about it.

The biggest town in Go Island was connected to the port, so it didn't take long for Naruto to find his way in. Unlike Konoha's bustling roads and high buildings, the towns in Go Island were loosely designed, leaving swathes of land between the buildings and giving it a very scenic and peaceful look. The vegetation was not as lush as Konoha's, but it was a far cry from the desert islands that lay further south.

It took some asking around, but Naruto eventually made his way to the Mayor's house. Shikaku Nara was Go Island's current Mayor. It was a system similar to Konoha's, in that the Mayor was rarely chosen by elections. It would be better dubbed as a chieftainship, with the son of the current Mayor being the usual one to receive the title after it was passed down. Only on rare occasions would this not be the case.

On his way, he stopped by an inn and bough several barrels of rum, to be delivered to his galley by the innkeeper and his men who was used to such requests. Sasuke should be satisfied with this.

The Nara house was better called an estate, or a compound. It was comprised of several connected buildings and was walled off. Around the walls of the compound but within the borders of the Nara's land, deer were being tended to on the field. They would sometimes vanish into the forest that reached the north side of the Nara grounds, or walk out of it.

Naruto rapped on the outer gates and waited. He was allowed in by a servant, who bowed and led him to the actual door of the compound. Between the wall and the building was a cobbled path, cutting the gardens that lined the space in two.

The actual building was made of light wood and sturdy stone, and held nothing of the extravagance usually found in lords.

He was met at the door by the lord of the estate, Shikaku Nara. He wore a black and white kimono and a bored look which contrasted harshly with the jagged scars on his face. His hair was pulled back and left to spike after being tied. Naruto wouldn't say even when paid to, but he immediately though the man's head looked like a pineapple.

When he reached the patio he stopped, and the servant left them. Naruto bowed, and received a tip of the head in response.

"Mister Nara, greetings. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I was actually kind of looking for Shikamaru. Is he around?"

"Uzumaki, eh?" Shikaku said. To Naruto's surprise, his bored looked seemed to evaporate, and his eyes adopted a piercing quality that seemed to stare right through him. Frankly, it unnerved him.

"Err, yes."

"You're from Konoha, right? Live with Mayor Sarutobi, do you not?"

Shikaku was the Mayor of the closest island to Konoha, so it was to be expected that he would know. Only chance had disallowed the Mayor and Sarutobi's charge to not meet before now.

"Right, sir."

"I see." Shikaku said, trailing off. Still he was inspecting Naruto, as if expecting to find the answers to the world's secrets on the contours of his face. "And you said you're looking for my son?" He asked absently.

"Right." Naruto nodded. "I'm looking for Shikamaru, and I was under the impression that he would be-"

"Excuse me for interrupting you, mister Uzumaki," Shikaku cut him off suddenly. Naruto closed his mouth, which had been left open when he paused mid-speech "but can I ask you to do something?"

Well, he'd seen and done some weird things in his life, he could take some strangeness from this man.

"Sure."

"Grin."

Naruto was taken aback. Had he heard right? "Excuse me?"

"Smile. As cheerfully as you can."

What a strange request. What purpose did seeing his smile serve to the man? To check his dental care? Regardless, he chose not to question it and just get it over with. Smiling always came easy to Naruto. Despite his sometimes abrupt and cutting attitude, he was a cheerful person when given leave to be. He brought to mind the farewell he'd received from his past coworkers from Konoha the previous day, and a wide grin found itself to his face almost by its own accord.

He let it drop after a few seconds, and it seemed to be enough to Shikaku who had watched him carefully and had then nodded absently to himself, as if having confirmed something.

"Naruto Uzumaki … how troublesome." He said, trailing off after drawing his last name out. Shikaku gave him one last searching look, before shaking his head slightly as if to focus himself.

"Right, sorry for that. Go ahead. You said you were looking for Shikamaru? The brat isn't here."

Naruto frowned. "That's odd. I was under the impression that he wasn't travelling anywhere at this time. I have urgent business with him."

"I never said he wasn't in the island, boy. I only said he wasn't _here_."

"Oh." Well, now Naruto was feeling stupid. "Well, can you direct me to where he is?"

"I could." Shikaku said, tilting his head slightly to the side.

"Would you?" Naruto prompted.

"What do you want with Shikamaru?"

What could he say to Shikamaru's father? Not the truth, certainly. But he couldn't lie, either. He was terrible at that.

"Just a business proposal that I made him some time ago and whose time has come. Could you direct me to where I can find him, please?"

Shikaku ignored him. Naruto was getting really annoyed with people doing that.

"Are you going to take my son, mister Uzumaki?"

Naruto froze. The man's face was completely serious, his eyes slightly narrowed and watching his face with the intensity of a hawk. He'd seen such looks before on Sarutobi. He had no way of lying or evading the truth when Sarutobi got like this, and something told him that it wouldn't work any better with Shikaku.

"Yes." He answered eventually, after a few seconds of deliberation. Shikaku regarded him in silence for a few moments, and Naruto would give half his stash to know what the older man was thinking.

"What makes you think he will come with you?"

Several things, none of which he cared to recite to Shikaku. And if Shikaku was half as smart as Shikamaru was, then he knew the truth, too.

"You don't think he will come, sir?" He said, instead.

Shikaku broke his intense gaze to let out a long sigh that approached a groan, as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Nah, I have no doubt the brat will come with you. You're that kid he was with for a month on that trip eight years ago, right?"

Naruto nodded. A leap of logic, perhaps, but Shikamaru didn't seem to have inherited his smarts from thin air.

They were now at an impasse. Shikaku could, theoretically, stop Shikamaru from leaving, but Shikamaru was an adult and any attempts to forcefully stop him would, at best, create a rift in their family. Naruto didn't think the elder Nara would do that, but he could not hope to understand the man's thought process.

Shikaku seemed to have reached his decision, because he straightened from his position that was slumped against the doorframe.

"Wait here." He commanded and retreated further into the house. The sense of déjà-vous was all Naruto had for company as he waited, and wait he did. Some five minutes later, Shikaku returned with a sizable pack, bigger than Naruto's two packs but smaller than Sasuke's trunk, slung against his shoulder. He lay it on the ground in front of Naruto.

"This is troublesome, but give this to Shikamaru. He'll be either at the docks on some crow's nest or the hills behind those woods. He likes to cloud-gaze there."

"Mister Nara, thank you for this, but we're not in a hurry to leave. Shikamaru can come home to say his farewells."

Shikaku shook his head. "He won't come here if he knows what's good for him. And you two better be off the island by the time his mother finds out. Yoshino is a good woman and she loves Shikamaru dearly, but she won't hesitate to beat him black and blue. She's a troublesome woman. She will understand in time."

"Well, we could find Shikamaru together and you can say goodbye."

Shikaku shook his head again. "I'd best stay here and keep an eye on Yoshino. You go. She will start looking for him not long after sundown. If you absolutely must stay the night, make sure Shikamaru is inside your ship. She won't look there."

Naruto nodded. "Understood. Do you want me to pass something on, then?"

"Eh, Shikamaru is a smart kid. He knows how his mother and I feel about him. He'll be fine."

"Right." Naruto said, lifting the pack that Shikaku had brought. It was surprisingly heavy, but nothing Naruto couldn't manage with ease. "Goodbye, mister Nara."

"Wait, Naruto." Naruto had half-turned already, but he obligingly stopped and looked back at the man. Shikaku seemed troubled.

"Take care of my son, will you?"

"Of course."

"And I know what I said earlier, but tell him that we love him, both of us, and that he doesn't need to prove anything to anyone. He can come back at any time and do anything he likes."

That was probably some inter-Nara family issues. Naruto had some idea of what the man meant, but he wouldn't go as far as to assume.

"Right. I'll do that. Anything else?"

Shikaku seemed to collect himself, his earlier aloof air returning.

"No, that's it. Safe travels, mister Uzumaki."

Farewells said, Naruto left. He felt Shikaku's heavy gaze burn the back of his neck, and was relieved when he was outside the outer walls of the compound and the man could no longer see him. Were all mayors this unnerving and seemingly all-knowing?

He set about finding Shikamaru. The hills were closest and it was better to look there first before heading towards the port, where he would go eventually, anyway.

Go Island really was interesting. The layout of giving each land owner a pretty big space but still keeping them close enough to be considered a city was fascinating. The people here were positive and lacked any sense of urgency. Naruto should have expected it, but the pleasant waves and greetings and the _smiles_ still caught him by surprise. He knew that practically no one outside of Konoha knew of his Devil Fruit, but it still surprised him every time it happened.

As it happened, it didn't take more than half an hour to find Shikamaru. He was indeed in the hill he was directed towards by Shikaku. It was a scenic place, with the slightly sloped hill carpeted by vibrant looking grass gently flowing with the whims of the wind. Naruto could see how someone could relax there.

And relax is exactly what Shikamaru was doing. He was sprawled on the grass, hands behind his head and eyes closed. Not very good for cloud-gazing, but more relaxing. Maybe he was asleep. He wore light black pants and a grey vest that was unbuttoned. His hair was styled similarly to his father.

If he noticed Naruto's approach, he didn't show it. Even when Naruto was practically next to him that he must have heard his steps, he didn't stir. When reached him and blocked the sun, however, one eye lazily slid open.

"Oi," Shikamaru said "you're blocking my sun."

"Sorry." Naruto said and stepped to the side, allowing Shikamaru to once again be bathed in the afternoon glow. Satisfied, he closed his eyes again.

Naruto waited.

And waited.

Fifteen minutes later, he was still waiting. Maybe he really had fallen aslee-

"You're still here?" Shikamaru's voice broke him out of his reverie, and he brought his eyes down to look at the guy. Nope, eyes still closed.

"Err, yeah."

"Tche." Shikamaru groaned as he finally opened his eyes. Taking some seconds to adjust to the light, he landed his gaze on Naruto. What was at first a sleepy and annoyed look quickly morphed to confusion, suspicion, followed by recognition and finally settling on surprised.

"Naruto? Is that you?"

"Yo, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru's eyes trailed all over Naruto, whom he hadn't seen in a few years, and finally rested on the heavy pack on his back. He must have recognized it.

"You spoke to my dad?"

"Yes. He sends you this along with his love."

"So you're serious, then? You want me to navigate for you?"

"I promised you, didn't I? I never go back on my word."

"Troublesome. What makes you think I'll go with you? What we said when we were twelve shouldn't matter so much."

Naruto chuckled. "Stop playing hard to get Shikamaru. We need to get back to the ship. Come on."

"Tche, at least play along and pretend to convince me as a adult, would you?" Shikamaru grumbled. Despite this, he got up from the ground, groaning the whole while. When he was finally up, he stretched his arms and let out a huge yawn, before popping his back, releasing three loud pops.

"That sounded painful." Naruto said.

"…was…" Shikamaru mumbled, before once again yawning and rubbing his eyes. "Right, let's go."

Together they set off towards the port.

"Shikamaru?" Naruto asked out of the blue.

"Hm?"

"Seriously now, if you'd prefer to stay, I'll understand. I'm sure I could find someone else to help me. Don't come if you don't want to."

Shikamaru sighed. "Shut up, Naruto."

Naruto grinned widely at this. They spent the rest of the walk chatting and catching up. Naruto told Shikamaru of Shikaku's parting words. Shikamaru frowned and seemed to consider them in silence.

They reached the galley and found it just as Naruto left it. Climbing aboard, they found Sasuke sitting with his back against the main mast, eyes closed.

"Oi, bastard! Wake up." Saying this, Naruto kicked the Uchiha on the foot for good measure, causing Sasuke to startle, his eyes to snap open and his hand to close around the grip of his sword. When he realized his aggressor was Naruto, he scowled.

"You fucking idiot, I could've killed you."

"No," Naruto argued "you couldn't."

"Well I _should_." Sasuke mumbled as he got up, stretching his back which must have been sore from laying like that.

"And who's this?" Shikamaru asked.

"Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto replied. "He's a bastard and practically forced me to take him with me."

"I'm the first mate." Sasuke supplied helpfully with a grin.

"The hell you are, bastard."

"I'm totally the first mate, loser."

Shikamaru watched the banter with amusement, and finally decided to step in.

"Hi, I'm Shikamaru Nara." He offered his hand to Sasuke, who took and shook it.

"I know, this guy wouldn't shut up about you."

"Really now?"

"Yes. Did you know that he missed Go Island? He's supposed to have been travelling here all the time, even."

"Oi! That was barely a few degrees. I brought us here, didn't I? Any more words of this and you'll be sleeping on the crow's nest."

Shikamaru chuckled. He took the pack from Naruto and rummaged around it.

"Tche, old man forgot my favorite shirt. Whatever."

"Sasuke, are the barrels secured?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded.

"Yeah, the guys who brought them helped me."

"Good, prepare to set sail."

This made Shikamaru look up from his things.

"Oi, oi, what's the rush? It's almost dusk already, the light will be gone soon. Stay here tonight and leave tomorrow. Are we in a hurry or something?"

"Well, you father was pretty adamant that we scamper as soon as possible. Your mother sounds pretty scary, man."

"Meh. Mum can be scary, but dad is exaggerating. We'll be fine in the ship or places she won't look in."

"Alright then, we'll chill out here today and leave tomorrow morning."

"Right. I'll go find myself some space, then."

"Yeah, there's plenty of room left."

With that Shikamaru picked up his pack with a groan of effort and headed inside the galley. Sasuke turned to Naruto.

"So that's our navigator, huh?"

"Yup."

No further words were exchanged, and the two busied themselves with the ship until Shikamaru came back out.

"Say, Sasuke," he asked "why did you want to go with Naruto?"

Sasuke hesitated, but Naruto encouraged him. "Yes Sasuke, do share with the class why you decided to impose your presence on me."

Sasuke scowled, but Naruto's interjection had the intended result of morphing Sasuke's hesitation into irritation aimed at him.

"Because it will help me become strong enough to find and kill my brother."

The slight widening of Shikamaru's eyes was the only sign that he understood the implications.

"Itachi Uchiha?"

Sasuke nodded, a dark look on his face.

"I … see." Then he turned towards Naruto. "And you? We were twelve then, a lot has changed."

"I guess." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "It's just that I couldn't stay in Konoha, ya know? The whole Kyuubi business made living there annoying at the best of times."

"What exactly do you mean by Kyuubi business?" Shikamaru asked, making Naruto raise an eyebrow in question.

"You don't know? Didn't I tell you eight years ago?"

"I don't remember anything about any Kyuubi, back then."

"Oh, my bad I guess. Check this out."

Saying this, Naruto stuck his right hand out, palm up. His irises became feline slits and turned from light blue to a deep red. At the same time, his nails elongated and the marks on his cheeks became more pronounced. A faint red mist lazily rose from Naruto's now clawed hand.

Shikamaru took a step back in, in fear or awe, Naruto didn't know. His eyes alternated between looking at Naruto's hand or his eyes.

"What … what is this?"

"I ate the Akuma-Akuma no Mi, Model: Kyuubi and became a Kyuubiman."

Sasuke groaned. "Please never say Kyuubiman ever again. Ever."

Naruto glared at him. "It's not my fault if the two words don't mesh well together, bastard!"

"Guys, guys," Shikamaru cut them off, hands raised "I think you're gonna have to help me a bit here…"

Naruto reversed the partial transformation and began the tale of twenty years ago. By the time he finished explaining how he came to his powers and the situation in Konoha, the sun had long since set.

"So you're trying to learn how to control the higher levels of your transformations, is that it?"

"Yeah. As you can imagine, I can't very well practice my Kyuubi forms in Konoha, where with even the slightest hint of demonic energy they'd be up in arms and calling for my head."

"I guess that makes sense." Shikamaru said, nodding absently. "There's one thing I don't understand though."

"What?"

"You said you were an orphan, right?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know? You also said that you know nothing of your real parents. How do you know they're not alive somewhere?"

"The old man said so." Naruto shrugged. "He could be lying I suppose, but he has no reason to, and he hasn't lied about other, harsher questions."

"And you're looking for them, right? I mean, their identities and such."

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons I decided to leave."

"Wouldn't you have accomplished that in Konoha though?"

Naruto gave him a look as if he couldn't see how Shikamaru could be considered smart.

"You don't think I've looked everywhere in Konoha?" Naruto asked, voice flaring. "Looked through every source of information and turned every stone? I snuck into the Town Hall for years, leafing through everything I could get my chubby little hands on. Not a single mention of any Uzumaki. I don't have any official papers of birth in Konoha either. There is nothing to do with me or my parents until the event itself. As if I grew from the ground simply for the third Mayor to stuff with the damned Fruit. I took to asking around, even people that normally glared at me, if they knew anything about my origin. I received several unkind replies, including several guesses about my mother's profession, but no one knows anything."

"No one?"

"Except gramps himself, but he made it very clear early on that he can't tell me."

Shikamaru frowned. "Why the hell not?"

Naruto shrugged. "He says it's because of a promise he made to someone he loved, years ago."

"Tche. You know that someone was probably one or both of your parents."

"I've thought of that and though I base several theories around this assumption, I don't have any way to confirm it."

"I see. And how is gallivanting around the Grand Line any better, then?"

"There are other sources of information, other ways to find out. Assuming that it was either of my parents that made gramps promise, for them to be a mystery, and for the old man to have valued them so much that he would honor their wish even as I pester him they must not have been just random nobodies. Hell, I have suspicions that gramps wasn't always the quiet Konoha citizen with an obsession with giant bo staves that he'd like us to think he was."

"You're talking about the World Government?"

"The Government, the Marines. I'm planning to search several of their archives. With or without permission."

"Why not join them, then?"

Naruto made a dismissive noise. "And spend years in training and then decades to achieve a high enough rank for a request that'll probably be denied anyway? No thanks. Besides, there are other things I want to do with my life, as well. Finding my parents will be nice and all, but it's not the only thing driving me forward."

"Hey, guys," Sasuke interrupted them "while all this getting to know our captain is heartwarming and all, the angst is too much even for me." He ignored Naruto's rude gesture and continued "I'd like to know why _you_ are coming along, Shikamaru."

"I guess after what you guys told me I can't hold back, huh? Well, my story is not as dramatic as yours. I'm the Mayor's son, and I'm expected to become Mayor in the not too distant future. I have no desire to do so for many reasons, not the least of which being that I'd suck at it."

"So you thought sailing the Grand Line and potentially getting killed was a better alternative?" Sasuke asked him incredulously.

"You've obviously never met my mother. But yeah, navigating is what I love to do, and navigating boring sea routes for traders got old after the second year I did it. Maybe along the way I'll even become worthy of being Mayor, who knows."

Naruto was nodding his head, and Sasuke gave a curt nod of his own at their new navigator's reasoning.

"Say," Naruto changed the subject "three people are enough to qualify us as a crew, right?"

"I guess." Shikamaru confirmed.

"We should totally have a name."

"As you keep pointing out, we're not pirates." Sasuke said. "Only pirate crews get names."

"And you keep telling me that it's only a matter of time."

"Well, we can start thinking of names when that time comes, then. No sooner."

"Oh come on, would it hurt to bounce some ideas and see where it gets us? I was thinking something along the lines of 'Naruto's Awesome Crew Of-"

"Hate to interrupt," Shikamaru cut Naruto's excited tirade off "but crew names are usually given to pirates by the marines, same thing as wanted poster monikers."

Naruto visibly deflated at that. "But what if they choose something completely uncool?"

Sasuke smirked. "Then I guess you'll have to live with it."

"This sucks!" Naruto whined, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration, before bringing them down on the railing of the ship. After a few seconds of silence, he patted the railing a few times before turning back to his comrades.

"That's it!" he explained.

"What is?" Sasuke asked, dreading the answer but knowing it was unavoidable.

"We may not get to name our crew, but we can totally name the ship, right?"

"I … guess." Sasuke relented.

"Alright! I vote for 'Naruto's Awesome Ship of-"

"There will be no naming our ship 'Naruto's' anything!" Sasuke shouted.

"It's _my_ ship, bastard! I'll name it what I want!"

They were stopped from coming to blows by Shikamaru's timely intervention.

"How about 'The Doomed'?" He asked. Naruto stopped glaring at Sasuke to frown at Shikamaru.

"That's stupid, man. Who'd name their ship 'The Doomed'? It's creepy, not to mention that it practically invites disaster."

"No no, hear me out. If you name it like this you'll actually be avoiding accidents and disasters because your ship is already 'doomed'. Get it?"

Sasuke blinked at Shikamaru. "That's the stupidest thing I've heard you say so far."

Shikamaru glared at the Uchiha survivor. "Would you rather we go with Naruto's idea?"

"The Doomed it is!" Sasuke decided.

"Hey! I didn't agree to that."

"Come on Naruto," Shikamaru said "It's two on one, we outvote you, and you're the one who made this a vote in the first place."

Naruto glared at Shikamaru. "Fine! But if we crash and or sink, it'll be on your head!"

With that little bit of logic imparted, Naruto looked outside the ship as he stood next to the railing, resting his elbows on it.

"Say, Shikamaru, will your mother look at the bar?"

"The bar?" Shikamaru queried.

"_Any_ bar. I need a drink. Or several." Naruto clarified.

"I guess not. I don't frequent bars. I don't think she will look for me, anyway, not until tomorrow."

"Good, now lead us to a bar."

"I thought you'd been here before."

"Well yes, but we were working then and could only visit the nearby bars here at port. Isn't there anyplace better?"

"Follow me."

"Wait," Sasuke interjected "What about the ship? And why are we going to a bar anyway, you just bought a ton of alcohol."

"You said it yourself that the ship will be fine, and the rum I bought is for the journey, it won't do to waste it now. Besides, we got a new crew member, we need to celebrate! Come on mister grumpy-pants, lighten up."

Rather than lighten him up, Naruto endearment made Sasuke scowl, but he followed the other two off the galley without further complaint.

It was well into the night when the three young men entered a respectable bar, near the center of the town, but not close enough to the Nara grounds that Yoshino Nara would look inside if she decided to look for her wayward son.

It was a likeable establishment with good atmosphere and decent music. Several tables were already occupied with patrons and the barman was busy catering to orders. They took their seats in front of the bar and ordered large glasses of rum, which arrived promptly. They toasted and drank.

They drank and chatted for the next three hours, getting comfortable in the bar's atmosphere and planning in hushed whispers. Naruto had taken to occasionally glancing at two young women seated on a table to their right, one blonde and the other brunette, both pretty things who couldn't be any older than they were. The brunette had been looking at Naruto as often as Naruto was looking at her. Shikamaru decided to confront him about it.

"Why don't you try your luck with her? I know her, she's a decent person; and you've been stealing glances at each other all evening."

Naruto shook his head. "Not yet." He said.

"What are you waiting for?"

"The right moment."

"Well, you'd better make a move before those guys sitting behind them do. They've been leering at them all night and they're getting progressively drunker."

"As I said, the right moment. Wait and watch."

Shikamaru shrugged, deciding to leave Naruto to his own devices. He turned back to Sasuke for some intelligent discussion.

As it happened, the right moment came ten minutes later. Shikamaru heard Naruto's barstool creak as he push it back and got up, and turned to see what his blond captain was doing.

He noticed immediately that the two guys that had been ogling at the girls were on their feet and in front of them. What they saying to the girls was obvious, and from their expressions and shooing motions, Shikamaru assumed that the girls weren't interested. Even as Naruto approached, the two men spoke louder, their drunken voices slurring as they moved even closer to the table. Shikamaru noticed the barman begin to walk around the bar, but Naruto was already there.

He clamped one hand on each of the drunk's necks, seemingly slung such in a casual gesture. By their expression of discomfort and pain, it was anything but a friendly grip.

"Hey you guys, I think the ladies want some space. You don't want to cause any trouble, do you?" Naruto said, squeezing a little tighter. The two squirmed and stammered denials and apologies.

"Good boys. Now go outside and sleep it off, yeah? Don't bother these girls again."

Having said that, Naruto turned, pulling the two men with him. With a good shove, both drunks were sent tumbling out the door. Naruto received polite claps from the rest of the patrons, to whom he waved, before turning to the women.

Shikamaru saw that, though the women hadn't looked terribly worried before Naruto showed up, the blond's choice to do so had worked massively in his favor.

"Hello. I'm Naruto."

Shikamaru shook his head in fond exasperation at his captain's antics as he was invited by the girls to sit at their table. The right moment, indeed.

Sasuke was glaring at his glass. "I propose a mutiny." He said as he pulled the glass back to drink. Shikamaru laughed.

"Then things would get boring."

"Meh."

"besides, Alyssa has been looking at you, you know. You could follow his example."

"Who the hell is Alyssa?"

"The blonde one?"

Sasuke spared a look at the second girl, next to the one Naruto was chatting up. She happened to be looking up and caught him looking at her, so she threw a smile his way.

"Meh." Sasuke said again, returning to his drink. "I don't care about that right now."

"Your loss." Shikamaru shrugged.

"Shut up and drink." Sasuke grunted. They toasted and finished their glasses before calling for a refill.

A few minutes later, Sasuke was interrupted from his musings by a light tapping on hi shoulder. He turned to look and saw the young woman, Aly-something, the blond one, looking at him with a smile.

"Hello, I'm Alyssa." She introduced herself. Sasuke looked towards Naruto. To his slight shock, he was already entangled with the brunette, though the blond did catch his eye and send him and thumb up around her head. Sasuke scowled, turning back to the blonde girl who hadn't stopped speaking.

"…with Naruto and was wondering if you'd like to join us. Shikamaru as well, of course, if he wants." She added as an afterthought, though it was obvious Shikamaru was extended the offer only as a courtesy.

Sasuke didn't spare her a second glance.

"No, go away." He said, before picking up his glass. He heard her catch her breath for a second before shakily walking away, a sniff catching her breath.

Shikamaru was frowning at him. "Why did you do that?"

"Didn't feel like going with her."

"Could've been less of an ass about it. She's not just a random harlot. Don't look, but she's crying now."

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders, not caring to continue this discussion. He finished his drink.

"Oi, bastard!" Naruto's yell, much closer than he expected him to be, made Sasuke turn.

He turned just right to catch the blond's fist with his face. The blow forced him right off his stool and on the ground. Already feeling slightly dizzy from the alcohol he'd consumed, the blow served to disorient him and make the world swim around him. He groaned as he tried to pick himself off the ground.

Naruto helped him in this endeavor, grabbing a hold of his haori and rising him to his feet.

"Where do you get off being a bastard like that? She was just trying to talk to you!"

"Didn't … wanna …" Sasuke grumbled, trying to lessen his pounding head. He would cut Naruto for this but … tomorrow.

"Wait," Sasuke said as another thought occurred to him "did you set her up to this?"

"Damn right I did!" Naruto yelled in his face, expression livid. "Here I was being a nice captain and everything and letting you have one, and you have to go and ruin everything! You really are a bastard."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke said as he shook Naruto's hand off him.

"I'm talking about making Alyssa cry, you sexless idiot! Now Alyson has to console her and they both left! Why do you have to ruin everything?"

While the fact that Sasuke's refusal had crashed and burned Naruto's plans for the rest of his night was hilarious by itself, Sasuke found something else to latch onto.

"Wait, the blonde was called Alyssa, and the brunette was called Alyson?"

"They're sisters."

For some reason Sasuke found this particularly hilarious, because he cracked up, laughing loudly. Perhaps he'd drank more than he thought he had.

Naruto's bristling anger evaporated in the face of seeing the Uchiha so out of it, the incredulity of it smothering even his righteous anger.

He sat on the stool next to him.

"Laugh it up, Uchiha. You won't be laughing when we leave here and your wallet is empty. You're buying drinks from now on for ruining my night."

"Heh. As if you could get lucky so easily, loser."

"Shut up and order before I beat you black and blue, bastard."

**~N~**

The sun woke all three of them a few hours before noon as it was rising in intensity. The deck of the Doomed was filled with quiet groans as the three of them stirred.

They'd somehow found they way to the ship before collapsing on the deck, last night.

The first one to wake up and manage to rise was Naruto. Dark bags under his naturally red eyes which he rubbed with one hand, he shakily rose to his feet and regarded the nearly comatose forms of his crewmates.

"What the fuck did we do last night?" He wondered over his pounding headache. Even he, with his higher alcohol tolerance, couldn't remember much beyond an hour or two after the girls left. They'd just kept ordering and drinking and even bough the entire bar drinks once. Shikamaru had been reluctant but followed them whenever they drank, and then they'd somehow ended up … here.

He kicked the other two on the shins, earning dissatisfied groans.

"Oi," he called weakly, throat dry and aching "get up."

"…g'way…" Shikamaru managed to let out, from the ground.

"I won't hesitate to dump you guys into the sea if you don't pull it together."

That threat was enough for the other two to at least sit up, though they did it groaning and rubbing their heads the whole while.

"Why are you …" Sasuke said slowly "…not … _dead_?"

"Like you?" Despite feeling like absolute shit, Naruto managed a smile. The other two were feeling worse. "I have a great metabolism. Mythical Zoan user, at your service."

"Fuck … off." Shikamaru eloquently told him.

"Charming. Now get up you deadbeats. Go wash your heads and mouths, we need to get going."

The two somehow managed to find their feet, though they were swaying and Naruto doubted Sasuke's ability to even understand the concept of a straight line. He was about to tease them again when he heard an angry voice yell at them from the dock.

"Oi! You! In the galley!"

He shuffled over to the ramp to see what the commotion was. The yelling was hurting his head. He saw a group of men, about seven, gathered at the bottom of the ramp leading to their ship.

"What d'you guys want? Keep it down, please. My head is killing me."

"Shut up, bastard!" The guy at the front of group yelled, causing Naruto to rub at his temples in pain. "We're the guys from yesterday!"

"… who?"

"US!" The guy yelled again, pointing at himself and the guy next to him who looked just as angry. Naruto started to notice that the group held either clubs or small knifes. Oh.

"Do I know you?"

"Don't play dumb, you sonofabitch! We're the guys you threw out yesterday at the bar!"

Sasuke and Shikamaru had shuffled over to see what the fuss was all about, Sasuke still rubbing his forehead.

"Hey now, no need to insult my mother. Oh right, now that you mention it, I remember you. What do you want?"

"We came for you, you fucker. We're not drunk now, and you'll be sorry for ever crossing us."

"Let me guess, you'll rough us up and pillage our ship?"

The leader seemed to be taken slightly off guard by this. "Well, yeah!"

Naruto groaned and turned away from the railing, heading closer to the mast.

"Sasuke, take care of these guys. They're making an awful lot of noise."

"Why should I? I'm worse off that you. _You_ do it."

"I'm the captain, you're the underling. Go take care of them."

Sasuke glared at him through red-rimmed eyes.

"Be grateful that they're just as aggravating to me as they are to you."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just go."

"Hn."

With that, Sasuke stepped on the ramp and started walking towards the group of seven.

"You think you can take seven of us on with your silly sword, pretty boy?"

Sasuke's scowl deepened.

"I really don't like your voice." He said. "And I won't need my sword for this. I'd normally play with you to show you how pathetic you really are, but all I need you to do right now is _shut the fuck up_."

His piece said, Sasuke moved. He reached the first guy in three quick strides. He had the good sense to swing his wooden club. Sasuke leaned slightly to the right to dodge, then stuck a quick and brutal fist to the man's stomach. Even as the man was heaving, he pulled them to the side and dropped him into the water with a splash.

The next guy was less fortunate, as the punch found him on the face and obliterated his nose, taking him out of the fight. The guy next to him tried to swing his knife but found his hand held in a vice-grip courtesy of one pissed-off Uchiha. Sasuke turned his hand, forcing the thug to drop the knife, before landing a devastating kick to the man's nether region that dropped him just as fast and left him in a moaning pile on the floor.

Sasuke weaved between the remaining four thugs, dropping them one after another with a single swift blow to the head or the gut, dodging the occasional strike by a slight rebalancing of his feet.

It was over in less than thirty seconds. Standing among the groaning bodies, Sasuke let out a groan of his own and rubbed his temples.

"Ah, blessed silence, how I'd missed you."

"Get on the boat, Sasuke. We're leaving."

"Yeah, yeah."

"It's a ship, dammit! A ship, not a boat. Get it right!"

Giving one last kick to the thug under him, Sasuke returned to the Doomed, pulling the wooden ramp with him.

The three of them set about preparing the ship to sail with less enthusiasm than to be expected for the actual beginning of their journey, but none faulted the others for it.

When the ship was ready and heading steadily out of the port, Naruto gathered the other two to speak to them. He held three cups of rum in his hand.

"Ugh. Get that thing away from me." Shikamaru groaned upon seeing the alcohol.

"Don't be a pussy. We need to toast to the official creation of our crew."

"Just get it over with." Sasuke sighed as he took the offered cup and glared disdainfully at the devil's liquid. Seeing this, Shikamaru reluctantly followed his example.

Naruto raised his cup in the air.

"I'll control the Kyuubi, find my parents and create a place for myself in this world!"

Sasuke followed his captain's example, raising his cup and touching it to his. "I'll grow strong and avenge my family."

Shikamaru's cup joined theirs. "I'll sail the world and become worthy to lead my island."

"Cheers." In hindsight, their cheer could've had a little more _cheer_ in it, but it was all the three could do to empty their cups without throwing up.

Once all three were done, Naruto wiped his mouth with his sleeve and groaned.

"Ugh, that was terrible. Now, here's what we're going to do."

This drew the attention of his two crewmates.

"I'm going to my cabin to sleep a little. You guys make sure we leave the port safely and are on course as per the Log Pose. Okay? Great."

With that, he turned his back on them and headed towards the door leading deeper into the galley.

"Oi, idiot!" The last Uchiha called out. "Why do _you_ get to sleep? We're feeling just as bad, if not worse than you are!"

Naruto sighed. "Do I really need to make a coat that says 'Captain' on the back? Because I will if I have to."

**~N~**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: Standard Disclaimer

* * *

**~N~**

**All the World's Wonders, Chapter 3**

** ~N~**

* * *

It had been about a week since the Doomed and her crew left Go Island. The three men had settled into a routine as Sasuke and Shikamaru got used to the galley's peculiarities. Each had their own room, and they had shared the ship's duties evenly.

Sailing was a calming experience, for the most part. A nasty storm had struck up during the fourth day, but some quick thinking from Shikamaru had allowed them to escape it mostly unharmed.

They would be arriving to the first destination of their Log Pose, Jaya island, within the week, according to Shikamaru. He warned them that it was mostly a pirate hotspot and to be careful.

At the moment, Naruto was inspecting something in the sky above.

"Oi, guys, what's that?"

Shikamaru drifted from his lazy goofing by the railing to approach the helm. He raised a hand to block the sun and squinted to see what Naruto was pointing at.

"What are you seeing, Naruto?"

"It's a weird bird. It's … wearing a hat and carries a … bag?" Naruto frowned as he said it, as if disbelieving his own eyes. Shikamaru scowled, because he could barely spot a flying shape, never mind a hat or a bag.

"It's the News Coo, Naruto."

Naruto blinked. "The what?"

"The News Coo. They're delivery birds that spread the newspaper. Don't you have that in Konoha?"

Naruto shrugged. He'd never noticed any such weird birds. He raised his hands to his mouth and yelled at the top of his voice.

"Oi, newspaper bird! Down here!"

"Pipe down, moron." Sasuke's voice drawled from where he was rounding up some rope. Nevertheless, Naruto's holler did draw the attention of the News Coo bird, which cawed before swooping down. It landed on the railing and turned on its side, so that the pack of newspapers was presented to them.

Seeing as Naruto was too preoccupied with stammering how cool the bird was, the navigator of the Doomed approached and removed a single newspaper. The News Coo bird immediately took off again, continuing its way.

Naruto was busy watching the bird fly away, so Shikamaru returned to his slouching position and opened the paper, a bored look on his face.

"Anything interesting?" Sasuke called.

"Wait a bit, I'm reading."

"Let me know."

Shikamaru grunted in reply, continuing to read. His eyes widened slightly from their usual half-closed state as he read the front page.

"Hmm."

"What is it?"

"One of the Warlords was given the boot."

This drew Naruto's attention, who rushed to his side.

"Eh? One of the Warlords?"

"The Seven Warlords of the Sea? Pirate lapdogs of the government?"

"I know who the Warlords are! What happened?"

Shikamaru could tell Sasuke was paying close attention, though he didn't stop his work.

"Well, it says here that Warlord Crocodile was the mastermind behind the unrest and civil war in the country of Alabasta." His eyes kept going further and further down the page. "His list of crimes is quite extensive."

"Damn. A civil war? What for?"

"Some plot to take over from the Royal Family, apparently."

"Where is Crocodile now?" Sasuke asked.

"Probably on his way to Impel Down." Naruto muttered.

"Our illustrious captain is correct. Crocodile has been confirmed to have been sentenced to Impel Down. He's no longer a Warlord."

"How did he fuck up?"

Shikamaru frowned. "The article is not really informative on that. It just says that a captain Smoker defeated and arrested him. Apparently his heroic actions were enough to promote him to Commodore."

"Must have been pretty strong to take down a Warlord."

"I heard that Crocodile was a logia type." Sasuke said.

"No way!" Naruto said. "What type?"

Sasuke shook his head. "No idea."

"There's also a list of new bounties." Shikamaru whistled. "Some impressive rookies."

"Oh?"

"Check this out." Shikamaru said, turning to the right page. "These guys are from the same crew. Zoro Roronoa from the East Blue, first bounty, 60 million Beli."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. "That's impressive for a first bounty, even in the Grand Line, never mind the East Blue."

"Wait till you hear this, then. Monkey D. Luffy from the East Blue, bounty updated from 30 million to 100 million, captain of the Straw Hat pirates."

"100 million? Seriously? For a seventeen year old rookie from the East Blue, that's damn impressive. Who the hell did the kid piss off?"

Shikamaru frowned again. "It doesn't say."

"What, nothing? 100 million bounties don't just grow on trees." Naruto said, rolling his eyes.

"Nothing, but they purportedly caused chaos in Alabasta about the same time Crocodile was defeated. Their crew has more members apparently, but none of them have bounties."

Naruto scratched his chin. "I don't think we're getting the full story, here."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at his captain. "You think? Usually the Government likes to stress out the crimes of pirates, yet not a word on these guys. Whatever they did, they must want to keep it a secret while still bringing those guys down."

Naruto shrugged. "Well, good for them."

"For the pirates?" Shikamaru asked. "They'll have tons of bounty hunters after them now."

"Well, yeah, but bounties are cool, aren't they? Don't the pirates use them in dick measuring contests? Well, this guy's dick just got a whole lot bigger."

"Naruto," Sasuke said in a monotone "you're a real idiot."

"And you're even more of an idiot because you follow me."

Sasuke froze. He opened his mouth, frowned, paused, and closed it again. After a few seconds of thought, he shook his head and returned to his work.

"Anything else that's interesting?"

"Shikamaru skimmed the rest of the pages. "Nah. Some new Marine regulations, but nothing we should care about."

"Man," Naruto whined "are we there yet?"

"We'll get there when we get there, Naruto." Shikamaru sighed. "It'll be a few days more, so pipe down, would you?"

"Whatever." The captain dismissed as he headed to the bow of the ship, to the long mast that extended from there, called a bowsprit. There was little actual work for him to do at the moment, and he was bored, so he took to staring out at sea.

Three days later, the peace of their voyage was interrupted.

"Oi, I see something." Naruto said from his normal position on the bowsprit, one hand up to block the sun. His yell pulled Sasuke's attention from where he was tending to the sails of the foremast, and he looked in the direction his captain was looking.

"It looks like … a ship?" Was all Sasuke could make out from this distance. "I think the flag is black, but it could be a trick of the light."

"It's black alright," Naruto said "they're pirates."

"How can you tell? You don't have a spyglass."

"Mythical Zoan senses, right here baby."

"Hn. You're still a loser."

"Would you quit it, ladies?" Shikamaru admonished, walking out of the ship's interior and coming to a stop near Naruto.

"You say they're pirates?"

"Yeah. I think their Jolly Roger has … long blond hair?" Naruto asked, sounding puzzled.

"Really?" Sasuke asked, causing the captain to shrug his shoulders.

"That's what I'm seeing."

"They seem to be heading straight for us." Shikamaru noted. "We could probably evade them if we open full sail and turn tailwind-"

"Wait, _evade_ them?" Sasuke cut him out, before scoffing. "Don't be ridiculous."

"You want to wait here for the pirates?"

"Not wait. Continue our course. If the pirates want to come to us, let them."

Shikamaru turned to the captain. "You agree with letting a probably hostile pirate crew approach us?"

Naruto shrugged again. "None of the bigshots I'm aware of have this Jolly Roger, so how tough can they be? Besides, it's getting awfully boring lately. Some exercise would be great."

"The fact that they're not well known doesn't necessarily mean they're weak."

"Regardless."

Shikamaru groaned and rubbed at his eyes. "Whatever. Just don't sink us, don't die, and don't involve me. I'm not a fighter."

"Dibs on the captain!" Sasuke called from above.

"No way!" Naruto yelled. "The captain is mine. You had those seven dudes back on Go Island! Don't be greedy."

"I did that on _your_ orders."

"You still did it."

"Whatever. Then I want everyone else."

"You can deal with the small fry, I'll take the captain."

Shikamaru, who had watched the byplay, had few things to say.

"Tche. Troublesome crew."

The pirates caught up to them within the next two hours, and Naruto obligingly ordered that the Doomed halt and wait for them while they closed the last leg of distance between them.

The pirate ship was bigger, at least three times the Doomed's size, and came to a halt a dozen meters away from them. They could see pirates on the railing, holdings swords and flintlocks and laughing.

One man stepped forward above them, and they instantly recognized him as the captain from flowing blond hair, matching that from the Joly Roger. He was wearing a stylized captain's coat, colored in shades of red and black. He was relatively young, probably no older than thirty.

"Greetings, unfortunate crew of the sea." The captain called in a smooth, almost silky voice.

"Greetings, yourself." Naruto, as the captain, responded. "Can we help you?"

"Indeed you may." The pirate captain said. "By relinquishing all earthly possessions, including this fine galley of yours, to our care. However, I am kind, and shall not kill you. You need only evacuate the vessel. I do not see a dinghy on your ship, but I'm sure we can repurpose a few barrels for your convenience. Jaya is not far, and you should be able to make it, sea willing." The captain finished his speech with a smile.

"And who exactly are you?"

"Ah, what terrible manners that I have. You must excuse me. My name is Bill Cartor, and I am known in these seas as 'Kind' Bill."

"Say, Bill," Naruto began, tapping a finger on his chin "your ship is reaaally big and your crew looks reaaaally scary. Surely a pirate such as yourself has a bounty, right? A high one, certainly."

Kind Bill, obviously very flattered, blushed and shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot.

"Your compliments have no effect on me, you poor unfortunate captain." He said as he waved some air at himself.

"Of course, of course. Do tell me though, do you have a bounty?"

"I am the owner of a 52 million Beli bounty, as it happens. The Government does not agree with my actions, you see. They call it 'piracy'." Kind Bill chuckled, amused at his own wit.

Naruto turned to Sasuke, who had joined him by the railing, and raised an eyebrow.

"Good enough." Sasuke shrugged.

"Interesting as meeting you has been, I think it's about time we got on with our business." Kind Bill said. "We'll be taking your ship."

"No Bill, I don't think you will."

Kind Bill raised an eyebrow. "And how will you stop us? You're not marines, and I am aware of all bounties above 40 million. I don't want to kill you, but I will if you resist."

"Don't worry about killing us, Bill. We're coming up."

"Eh?"

That said, Naruto and Sasuke jumped, managing the dozen meters in height difference between their ships with no problem. They landed on the railing and before any of the pirates could react, had hopped again and landed in the middle of the deck.

To their credit, the pirates didn't stay dumbfounded for long. They surrounded the two of them, and Bill walked out of the crowd to stand in front of them.

"You wish to fight me in the middle of my ship and all of my crew? Brave, but foolish. You can't take on all of us."

"I won't." Naruto stated. He pointed to Sasuke with his thumb. "_He_ will. I'll only take care of _you_, and you better be worth the trade I made, or I'll be pissed."

"Fool!" Kind Bill shouted. "You have spurned your chance to leave here alive!"

"And who will take me down, you? Don't make me laugh."

"Witness my power!" With Bill's shout, his hair, for lack of a better expression, came alive. It started waving by itself and lengthened, forming in shapes around Bill's head.

"I ate the Nobi-Nobi no Mi, and can extend parts of my body at will!"

"I'll let you have fun with the weirdo captain." Sasuke said. With that, he walked towards the rest of the pirates, slowly removing his sword from its sheath with an almost lazy move. He popped his head to the left side to a satisfying crack, and finally let his gaze rest on the enemies in front of him.

"Alright then, who's first?"

Watching Sasuke begin to tear into the pirates, Naruto turned his gaze back to Kind Bill. His hair had now grown long enough to cover him completely and form shapes around him. Layer upon layer of blond hair knotted and formed itself into a dense armor around his body, covering him completely. At the same time, several tuffs of hair formed themselves into a sword. Despite being formed out of hair of all things, it looked pretty sharp to Naruto.

"Nobi-Nobi Armor! Nobi-Nobi Sword!" Bill declared once his technique was completed and his hair stopped growing.

"Before I kill you, I want to know your name, stranger."

"Naruto Uzumaki. I do have a question of my own, though. Is your hair the only thing you can extend? Can you actually extend your limbs or something like that? Do you ever extend your nose hair or chest hair? That could be uncomfortable, I bet. Not to mention, y'know, disgusting."

His words had the intended effect of angering the pirate captain.

"Enough talking! Die!" With that yell, he rushed at Naruto and swung his sword.

Naruto cursed inwardly as he barely dodged the swing in time. He'd severely underestimated Bill's speed of overestimated his own. Regardless, his clothes now sported a fresh cut along the torso. He had to focus or he'd get skewered by Bill's hair.

Bill rushed him again, and Naruto sidestepped the weapon, bringing his fist crashing down on the side of the pirate captain's head. When his fist made contact with the blond hair, Naruto felt like he was hitting solid stone. His punch did throw Kind Bill away from him, but his hand ached.

"Shit, that's some tough hair you've got."

Bill didn't reply, instead coming for another bout. Naruto once again dodged the sword swipe and the follow up slash, but failed to nail Bill with another punch. He and Bill danced around the deck, avoiding the gaggle of pirates who were running after Sasuke who was picking them off one by one. Like Naruto, he seemed to have underestimated the pirates a bit. Though they still posed no threat to him individually, they were skilled and organized enough to try to fight him as a group.

Avoiding another slash, Naruto decided to put some distance between him and Bill, and jumped all the way up the first mast, landing softly and looking down at his opponent to see what his next move would be.

Bill extended his hand towards him and a few strands of his hair followed his movement.

"Nobi-Nobi Rain!" He called, and the strands of hair flew in Naruto's direction.

"Shit!" Naruto threw himself to the side of the beam he was balancing on, letting the hair embed themselves harmlessly on the wood. Seeing the hair vanish in the wood made Naruto thankful that he'd decided to throw caution to the wind and dodge.

"By rapidly extending my hair and cutting their connection, I can create hair bullets with immense piercing power." Bill explained.

Naruto jumped off the beam, bringing his entire momentum forward and aiming an axe kick towards Bill. The pirate wisely decided to dodge, and Naruto's foot foot landed on the deck where he had been standing a second earlier.

The heavy wood broke, Naruto's foot sinking into it up until his ankle. He rose and shook his foot off the hole, just in time to duck under Bill's hair sword.

"I've about had it with this sword." Naruto growled. He snapped his hand forward, gripping Bill's hand on the sword's handle Naruto twisted his hand, forcing Bill to let go of the hair sword with a grunt of pain. Naruto managed to get rid of the sword, and he accepted the punch to his chin in exchange for it. It stung, but Bill wasn't particularly strong to actually deal enough damage to worry him.

"Nobi-Nobi Claws!" Bill shouted as he swung at Naruto. The younger blond managed to duck under the swipe of his hand and kick him in the chest as he rose again. The kick didn't seem to damage him through the hair armor, but it did push him back and putting some distance between them.

Naruto saw Bill's nails extended and sharpened, resembling claws.

"Okay." He said, and rushed him. Having seen what Bill was more or less capable of, Naruto decided to go on the offensive. He engaged the pirate in close combat, taking care to dodge the man's sharp nails while landing his own blows.

"Give it up!" Bill shouted after he took another of Naruto's punches to the gut and only grunted. "Your hits can't hurt me."

Naruto didn't say anything, only grabbed the man's wrist and twisting his arm behind him, trying to bring into a hold from which he could overpower the pirate. Bill was crafty, however, and managed to twist himself so that he turned rather than have his hand forced behind his back. His free hand surged forward and he was too close for Naruto to stop him.

Kind Bill drove his elongated nails deep into Naruto's gut, making him cry out in pain as the force of the stab lifted him off his feet and threw him several meters away. Naruto landed heavily on his back and his right hand immediately found the wounds on his abdomen, holding them to try and stem the blood flow.

"It's over." Kind Bill said as he slowly approached Naruto, the younger man's blood dripping from his nails. "You were a worthy adversary, but it is your time to die."

After a few seconds had passed, Naruto stopped wheezing in pain and his hand dropped from his gut. Despite this, no fresh blood flowed.

Kind Bill stopped moving when he saw Naruto slowly rise to his feet. He was even more unnerved when he heard him chuckle.

"That really fucking hurt, you know." He stood straight, and through his torn clothing Bill could see unmarred skin.

"What are you?" For the first time, wariness found its way to Bill's voice.

Naruto ignored his question. "You know, I really underestimated you. I guess I learned something from our encounter, eh? You're better than I thought, I'll give you that, and I never expected to have trouble from someone whose power is to lengthen their hair and nails. However…"

When Naruto looked at Bill again, his eyes were feline slits and his irises were an eerie red color.

"It's time I showed you my own Devil Fruit."

"Your own Devil Fruit…" Bill repeated, as if in a daze as he watched Naruto. Red energy had began to swirl around him as his nails elongated and turned into claws. His whisker marks grew more pronounced, and his face turned feral.

"Prepare yourself!" With that, Naruto made ready to pounce.

Which he would have, if Sasuke hadn't sailed through the air between him and Bill, to crash heavily against the mast. Naruto stopped his movement and tilted his head to look at his first mate. Sasuke's lip was split and blood was running from a gash in his head. Naruto looked towards where Sasuke had come from and saw that while the Uchiha had taken care of all of the pirate crew, one person remained. He yielded a sword and a confident smirk was on his face.

"Having trouble?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"Shut up." Was his first mate's gruff reply as he picked himself up. "I thought I saw two guys climb down to our ship, earlier."

"Eh, Shikamaru can take care of himself. I think."

"Hn." With that said, Sasuke rushed back to his opponent, brandishing his sword.

Naruto returned his gaze at Bill, who had watched the exchange with a half interested half incredulous look.

"Where were we?" Naruto asked, and vanished.

He reappeared behind Bill and swiped a clawed hand at him. Instinct or experience made the pirate duck and roll forward, which enabled him to avoid the swipe and the follow up kick. As Bill rose to his feet again, they both watched the tuffs of hair that Naruto's swipe had cut fall to the ground.

"Pretty sure _that_ can hurt you." Naruto said with a smirk.

Kind Bill said nothing, only condensed his hair armor even more as he formed two small, wicked knives with his hair, before charging at him.

Brave as it was of him, Naruto clearly had the advantage in speed with his partial transformation. He ducked under the first swing of the left knife and caught the second in his claws. He had no trouble tearing through the weapon. Sharp as it was, it was still made out of hair.

The pirate captain let go of the ruined weapon and aimed a punch at Naruto, which he tilted his head to the left to avoid. He pushed Bill's remaining weapon to the side with his left hand and punched him in the gut. Bill doubled over in pain as he was driven back by the force of the blow. He found his balance quickly, and when he spat blood on the deck he looked more angry than hurt.

He pointed his hand at Naruto. "Nobi-Nobi Rain!"

Even with his enhanced speed, he couldn't dodge all of projectiles at this range. A few of them pierced into his right shoulder and hand. They stung, but didn't do too much damage. A brush of his left hand freed the now limp hair and the wounds closed. They were small, but deep.

Naruto charged Bill and grabbed the wrist that still held a weapon in one hand. With the other, he swiped at the pirate's chest. Being held and being so close, he had no chance to dodge. Naruto's claws tore through the man's hair armor and dug into his chest, forming four long gashes. The wounds would have been much worse without the armor, but Naruto managed to break through it, nonetheless.

He blinked, and looked at his left shoulder where Kind Bill had buried his own elongated nails, his fingers digging into Naruto's flesh up to the second knuckle.

Naruto blinked again, and then casually swiped his claws over the left side of the man's face.

Bill released him immediately, falling to deck and holding his head as he screamed in pain, which was adorned by five new gashes that would probably be with him for the rest of his life.

"My face! What did you do to my beautiful face you animal!" Bill managed to yell between pained cries. Interestingly, his hair shortened back to their normal state, as did his nails.

"Now you look like an actual, seasoned pirate." Naruto said as he tested his left shoulder. The wounds there were healing slowly, but it would still take a minute or two for the deeper ones to close completely.

He looked further down the deck, where Sasuke and the unnamed swordsman were still exchanging blows. Naruto could follow their moves, but the skill displayed went right over his head. Sasuke seemed to have his hands full, and Naruto wouldn't interfere.

He retrieved rope, which he used to tie up the skill crying pirate captain.

"Oh settle down, it's hardly fatal." He admonished the older man. "We'll find you something to wrap it with while we sail."

"Wha-… what do you mean?"

"You have a bounty, right? We're giving you to the marines."

Naruto ignored Bill's threats and bribes and begs, which got progressively more outlandish, in favor of looking down at his own ship and trying to spot his navigator.

He saw Shikamaru on the deck of the Doomed, sitting on top of a rather fat and unconscious pirate, while playing with a sword, obviously stolen, in his hand. The Nara saw him and waved lazily. Naruto couldn't see the other pirate anywhere, but assumed that he'd been taken care of, as well.

A loud cry of pain drew his attention, and he saw Sasuke finish his own battle. He was sheathing his sword as the enemy swordsman fell to the ground, clutching an massive cut on his chest. Naruto approached and came to a stop besides his panting first mate.

"He is …"

"I didn't kill any of them." Sasuke cut him off. Naruto nodded.

"Good, good. We'll be delivering them to the marines, so let's tie them up."

Shikamaru climbed up to help after being asked to, and he whistled appreciatively at the carnage. They set about tying up the beaten pirate crew.

"So how was that swordsman?" Naruto asked Sasuke as they worked.

"Much better than I expected. After dealing with the small fry I thought he'd be the same. He wasn't. I could predict his movements, but he was still tricky."

Naruto scratched his hair. "You could predict his movements?"

Sasuke shook his head. "I'll explain some other time."

Shrugging, Naruto moved on. "He injured you?"

"Some nasty hits, and a few cuts here and there, but nothing serious. How was the captain?"

"Better than I expected, as well. His Devil Fruit was retarded, but he had some pretty good moves with it. Even got me a few times." Naruto said with a wince, as his left shoulder sent a stab of pain through his senses. "You probably would have had an easier time with him, with your sword and everything."

"Eh, I'm glad things worked out as they did."

"Yeah." Easy fights were boring, anyway.

After tying up the crew, they searched the ship for anything valuable. They took several barrels of rum and crates filled with food and transferred them to the Doomed. The ship would be searched by the marines, anyhow, and everything in it confiscated. They found a single trunk full of money, and several of them full of books and maps. The last victims of the Kind Pirates must not have been as loaded as the pirates must have hoped. They transferred those as well.

After they were done, they released a few of the least injured pirates to steer the pirate ship, and scaring the crap out of them to make sure that they wouldn't try anything. Bill, the swordsman, and the majority of the crew remained tied up and under watch. They gave some basic first aid to the more injured ones.

"Jaya should be a few hours away." Shikamaru noted. "But it is a well known pirate haven. Despite this, it has a small marine outpost, but it is on the other side of the island. It'll take us a few extra hours to get there."

"How long until the Log Pose resets?" Naruto asked.

"Four days."

"Okay, that gives us plenty of time."

The two ships left, with the Doomed leading the way and the pirate ship following close behind, Sasuke still onboard.

By the time they had arrived within view of Jaya island, it was almost nightfall. Shikamaru led them along the coastline of the weird island, while relaying the legend that it used to be shaped like a skull, before part of the island vanished in the sky. Naruto scratched his head at the weird legend, but accepted. This was the Grand Line. Crazy shit happened.

Shikamaru explained that while the marines of this base never ventured near Mock Town, Jaya's biggest town and port, they had an outpost on the island with ships ready to sail at any time for cases exactly like theirs. With so many pirates gathered, bounties were bound to come up. The marines were there to take care of them, and to keep an eye on Mock Town so it didn't grow to be an actual threat.

The base itself was not particularly noteworthy. A complex of buildings by the sea, with a walled-off port containing a few marine vessels inside. They were hailed before they were allowed to enter the port, and made to explain the reason of their approach. After everything was sorted, they entered the port and landed.

Marines flowed into the pirate ship, taking custody of the tied up men and women and dragging them inside the base. A lieutenant took Kind Bill after identifying him as such, and informed Naruto that he should proceed inside for his reward.

Sasuke and Shikamaru opted to stay in the ship, Shikamaru because he was bored and Sasuke because he wanted to sleep after the fight they'd had earlier. Naruto shrugged and followed the marines inside the base.

There was nothing of particular interest to the building, and when he asked where he was supposed to go he was lead to a waiting hall for bounties. There he was asked to sit on a chair and wait.

"The Commander will see both of you soon." The marine that had led him here said before he left. This surprised Naruto because he thought he was alone. He looked around and spotted a woman sitting in a chair. She must have been who the marine meant.

Naruto inspected the woman more closely. She looked young, maybe about his age or a little older, with blond hair that were caught in four ponytails. She wore a short-sleeved, black kimono that reached down to her legs, with slits along the side and a lightly colored cloth wrapped around her neck and jaw that fell down her front and back. She had a red sash tied around her waist and sported fingerless black gloves.

Was that a slab of metal strapped to her back?

The woman must have noticed him staring, because she turned to look at him and scowled.

"What?" She asked tersely. He noticed she had blue eyes.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and flashed a smile, walking confidently to sit next to her. She stiffened, obviously not wanting him to sit there, but he ignored that.

"Nothing, nothing. I was wonder what _that_ was." He asked, pointing at the piece of metal on her back.

"It's my weapon." She replied. Not very informative, but Naruto didn't expect much more than that.

"I figured that. Are you a bounty hunter?"

She seemed annoyed that he appeared determined to speak to her. Well, tough luck.

"On occasion. I dislike pirates. I dislike being attacked all the more."

"You must be strong." Naruto noted. She threw him a sideways glance.

"Your point?"

"Join my crew."

Whatever she had bee expecting, this mustn't have been it. She just stared at him for a few seconds, gathering her thoughts. Then, her scowl deepened.

"I have no desire to be a pirate."

"Ehehehe, I'm not a pirate, stupid." Naruto laughed. "Would I be standing in the middle of a marine base if I was?"

The blonde blinked a few times, and then she looked away, obviously embarrassed at her mistake.

"I'm not joining you, regardless."

"By the way, you still haven't told me your name."

"I know."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki."

The woman huffed in annoyance at his inability to get the hint. Now _she_ would be the rude one if she didn't reply.

"I'm Temari Sabaku."

"Nice to meet you, Temari."

She didn't reply to that, resolutely staring ahead.

"So where are you from?" Temari groaned again.

"Sandy Island."

"Alabasta, right?"

"Yes."

Naruto was about to speak again, but he was interrupted by the entrance of a man. He was a fellow in his fifties with greying hair, wearing a suit and the marine coat above it. He carried two cases.

"I am Commander Greyhan. I'll be giving you your rewards." He said as he approached. Both of them rose, and he stopped walking in front of them. He addressed Naruto first.

"For the capture of 'Kind' Bill Cartor, 52 million Beli. For the capture of his crew and his ship, 30 million Beli. Here you go."

He gave Naruto one briefcase and removed a sheet of paper from one of his pockets.

"State your name and the name of your ship for logistic purposes."

"Naruto Uzumaki, of the Doomed."

If the Commander found the name weird, he didn't say anything. He wrote it down with a disinterested look and turned towards Temari.

"For the capture of Suito Kareha, Mane Alerto and Jimmy Cranberry, a total of 45 million Beli. Here you go."

Temari accepted the briefcase with a nod.

"Name?"

"Temari Sabaku. I do not have a ship to declare."

"Very well." Grehan drawled. "Miss Sabaku will be escorted outside and mister Uzumaki back to his ship. Thank you for the captures and the Marines hope that you continue your exemplary behaviour."

His piece said, Greyhan turned on his heel and left. Behind him entered two marines, clearly waiting for them.

Temari nodded to one marine and motioned for him to lead the way. As she walked off, Naruto called after her.

"Yo, Temari!" She did stop and turn her head to look at him, so Naruto took that as a good sign. "Come with us, we can take you wherever."

"No thanks." And then she was gone. Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

He noticed the sympathetic smile of his marine escort. Despite himself, some color found its way to his cheeks.

"I'm usually smoother than that." He told the marine, who laughed and shook his head but didn't comment.

He was lead to where the Doomed was docked and he waved at the marine as he boarded.

He found Shikamaru dozing off next to the mast.

"Did you get the money?"

"Yeah, plus some extra for the ship and the crew."

"They give you any trouble?"

"Nah. I did meet someone interesting though."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Some girl from Alabasta. She'd taken out three pirates with bounties by herself."

"Shimakaru groaned. "Tche. Please don't go skirt chasing right now."

Naruto glared at him. "I was not!"

At Shikamaru's deadpan look, he amended his statement. "Okay fine, maybe I was. If you'd seen her you would have done the same. Plus, she must be strong. And she looked pretty angry."

Shikamaru scratched his chin, trying to follow Naruto's logic. "So because she looked angry you decided to hit on her?"

"I didn't hit on her, alright? I just made conversation. I don't know, I just got this feeling that she didn't know what she was doing, y'know? That she was lost."

"You got that feeling from seeing her for the first time? Are you sure it wasn't a different feeling you were getting?"

"Oi, what's with the interrogation? Let's just get the ship going."

Shikamaru shook his head at his captain's antics. His inability to stay away from hot women would get them all in trouble, eventually.

They let Sasuke sleep, as they guided the Doomed away from the marine base and closer to Mock Town. It was getting pretty late, so they decided to sleep onboard and disembark tomorrow.

The next day, the crew of the Doomed took their time finding a somewhat hidden cove that was suitably close to Mock Town. Shikamaru had told them that this was basically a town of pirates, so they took precautions. Ship hidden, then entered Mock Town proper.

Mock Town appeared peaceful from the outside and to the untrained eye. A resort, even. Hotels, bars, restaurants and welcoming smiles all around. However, the majority of the visitors, and quite a few residents, were pirates, so the three were very careful with their purses and other assorted items.

They spent the rest of the day exploring and buying provisions, which they then transported to the Doomed, themselves. At night, lacking anything better to do, they visited one of the bars.

They drank in peace for a few hours, until a group of pirates walked up to them and tried to intimidate them. Naruto, already well into his cups, would have none of that, and a massive bar brawl erupted, in which even the reluctant Sasuke and Shikamaru were pulled.

Half an hour later, a livid bar owner threw the three of them out, yelling all the while. Naruto was having the time of life and laughing merrily.

The next day was their last in Mock Town, as the Log Pose would have reset by morning and they would be able to leave.

They spent most of the day on the ship. Sasuke decided to train, explaining to Naruto that he'd had more trouble with that swordsman than he was comfortable with. Shikamaru decided to examine their loot from Kind Bill's ship, pouring over the various books and maps. This left Naruto quite bored, whose training could hardly be done in a ship and who had no desire to sit with a stuffy book.

He ended up doing various jobs around the ship, fixing stuff here and there or messing with things, rearranging supplies or whatever else came to mind.

By the time the sun was going down, he'd had enough.

"Gah!" he exclaimed. "Let's get out of here. I'm bored out of my mind." Shikamaru looked up from the chair he was sitting on and raised an eyebrow. His inquisitive expression was broken by a yawn.

"Whatever." He said as he rose.

"Oi, Uchiha! Stop swinging that thing and come out here. We're going to drink something."

He didn't receive a reply, but Sasuke did emerge from the ship's interior. The three set out, heading towards the town.

Expertly avoiding gangs of pirates, sober or drunk, they made their way towards a bar that seemed somewhat decent.

Taking a table for themselves, they ordered drinks and something to eat. The barman grimly told them that they were lucky Bellamy wasn't in the bar tonight. Naruto wondered who this guy was, but didn't much care.

They spoke in quiet tones for the next hour, enjoying their meal and drink.

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes landed on a person just entering the bar.

He waved his hand and hollered. "Oi, Temari! Over here!"

Shikamaru and Sasuke turned to look, spotting the woman who had frozen on the entrance. The blonde turned, spotted Naruto who was waving and smiling, and seemed to considering turning and marching right back out.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she seemed to resign herself to her fate and walked towards their table. Naruto scooted over and pulled a chair between himself and Shikamaru, patting it deliberately. Temari took the hint and slowly sat down.

"Hello Uzumaki." She said.

"What's this Uzumaki crap? I'm Naruto, yeah?"

"Fine."

Naruto looked at his crewmates.

"Hey guys, this is Temari. She's the strong woman I told you about that brought in those pirates. Temari, this is Sasuke Uchiha and this is Shikamaru Nara."

"Greetings." Temari said. Sasuke simply nodded at her.

"Our captain can be troublesome, so I apologise for whatever problems he caused you." Shikamaru said over his drink. This drew a small smirk from Temari and an angry shout from Naruto.

"I won't stay for long, anyway. Just a little while."

"You wanna order something?"

Temari seemed to consider it, then took one look at Naruto's exuberant face and ordered the heaviest drink the barman could make.

Sasuke leaned forward on the table.

"Naruto said you come from Alabasta. Is that true?"

Temari nodded. "Yes. From Nanohana."

"We read what happened on the newspaper. Pretty big upheavals, no?"

Temari frowned. "Yes." She replied, but before she could say anything else her drink arrived and she took some time to sip it. She grimaced at the strong taste, but accepted it.

"This Crocodile sounds like quite the character." Sasuke continued. "Do you by any chance know what his Devil Fruit was?"

"Suna-Suna no Mi." She replied in a whisper. "Sand logia."

"Ah. Sounds pretty strong."

"He was. Undoubtedly the strongest person in Alabasta."

"Hn. Not as strong as that Smoker guy, apparently."

Temari's brow furrowed.

"Who is Smoker?"

This drew confused looks from the three men.

"Commodore Smoker?" Naruto asked. "Reported to have uncovered and arrested Crocodile? It's all over the papers."

Temari shook her head. "I don't know what the paper say, but I received a message a few days ago and was told what happened in detail."

"You weren't there, then?"

"No, I-…" She paused suddenly, as if gathering her thoughts. "I haven't been home in over a year."

No one pressed what was obviously a sore issue as Temari drank from her glass again.

"So … what _did_ happen?"

"Well, it was all that Straw Hat kid and his crew, you see."

Naruto's eyebrows vanished into his hairline, Sasuke raised an eyebrow and Shikamaru narrowed his eyes.

"The Straw Hat kid? He's the one who took down Crocodile and Baroque Works?"

Temari nodded. "Yes. I don't know the details, but apparently the Straw Hat crew are friends of the royal family and took down Baroque Works as a personal favour to the princess, Vivi Nefertari."

"Well, that explains their mysterious bounties, at least." Shikamaru said.

"Tell us something about Sandy Island, Temari." Naruto asked. Though appearing reluctant, Temari replied. For the next half hour, Naruto chatted with Temari while Sasuke and Shikamaru talked among themselves. All of Naruto's probes on Temari's past were rebuffed, and he eventually stopped asking about that and moved on to other topics.

"He's actually _not_ hitting on her." Sasuke noted to Shikamaru.

"True. I don't know what's going on, but he must have some goal in mind."

Some time later, Temari had finished her drink. She pushed back her chair, ready to get up. She seemed much more amiable after a full cup of whatever it was she had been drinking.

"Thank you for inviting me, but I have to go now. I'll pass by again when I'm done with my business, maybe I'll see you guys then."

"Sure thing Temari." Naruto said. "We'll probably be here."

The other two waved as well, and Temari left the table and walked out the door.

Naruto turned to his crewmates. "So, what do you think?"

"Why weren't you hitting on her?" Sasuke asked him suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

"Bastard, don't ignore my question."

"She seemed to hate your guts at first, or at least highly dislike you. If what you said about the pirates is true, then she has good potential as a fighter. I assume the piece of steel on her back is a weapon, which is curious. Now, why weren't you hitting on her?"

"Because I want her to join us."

Both took a few seconds to process this.

"I'll come back to the fact that you apparently want someone you've met only once before to join in a bit, but do tell me because I'm curious, why does that stop you from hitting on her?"

Naruto made a face. "I want to, believe me, but do you have any idea how awkward the crew dynamics would be? Nah, she's hot, but I'd rather our crew not get splintered by something so silly."

Sasuke blinked once, because Naruto's thought process actually made sense.

"Okay, I'll grant you that. Now tell us why you want her to join us."

"I just do."

"You just do?"

"I have a good feeling about her, you know? It's not like she has something better to do."

"And how would you know that?"

"Weren't you listening to us talk earlier? She's drifting, basically. She tried to hide it, but she has no goals, nothing to do. And for whatever reason, she doesn't want to go back home."

"So you figured that it fell unto you to rescue the damsel in distress?"

Naruto snorted. "I dare you to say that in her presence. We'll see how much of damsel she is when she's wacking you over the head with a fifty pound slab of solid steel."

Shikamaru decided to intervene. "It's not like she showed any inclination to join us, Naruto. How do you plan to go about it?"

Naruto shrugged. "I'm sure something will come up."

"That's it? That's your brilliant plan?"

"Hey, if it's meant to happen, it will happen."

Shikamaru opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted when a man noisily pulled the free chair back and sat on it.

"Hello friends, mind if I sit?" The stranger asked, immediately drawing the attention of all three.

He was a kind of weird, Naruto thought. He didn't look older than them, with black hair falling in bangs over his face. He wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. He also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. On his left arm he had strapped a Log Pose, and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist, an orange elbow guard, and sported a tattoo that spelled 'ASCE'. He wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two blue faces, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels. He wore absolutely nothing to cover his chest or back.

From his position next to him and due to the man's hunching forward, Naruto could see another tattoo. One that chilled him to the bone. Two bones crossed under a grinning skull that sported a curved white moustache._ Oh shit._

Whitebeard.

"Sure." He told the man, partly because he'd already sat and partly because he didn't want to potentially anger a member of the strongest pirate crew in the world.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, blunt as ever.

"Hm? Oh yes, I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm-" the stranger paused mid-sentence as the bartender passed next to him, and his hand shot forward to grab the man's wrist. "I'm sorry sir," he addressed the bar tender "Could I bother you for food? I'm quite hungry, you see."

"Right away sir."

"And I do mean hungry. Bring me a lot of food, if you would."

"Of course, sir."

That done, the topless man turned back towards them.

"What was I saying? Ah, yes. I'm Ace, nice to meet you all."

"I'm Naruto."

"I'm Shikamaru."

"Sasuke."

"Great, great. You see fellas, I was passing by while on my search and decided to get some food, and then I saw you guys. I look at you all and I think, 'Hey, these guys look alright, nothing at all like the rest of the scum on this place', right?"

Naruto shrugged, accepting what the guy said as truth. The other patrons didn't look exactly the image of trustworthiness.

"I guess you're right, Ace." He said. "Say, I couldn't help but notice the tattoo on your back. It's real, isn't it?"

This drew the attention of his two crewmates, who weren't in a position to look at his back.

"Oh, that?" Ace said, turning his head as if looking at his back, which was, of course, impossible. "Yeah, my pride and joy. It's real."

"So you're one of Whitebeard's, eh?"

"Eh, pops? Yeah, I'm gonna make the old man the Pirate King."

Naruto blinked at the simplicity of the man's statement. He was still reeling over the fact that he was in the presence of a member of the living legend's crew.

At this point, several plates of food had arrived in front of him. He thanked the waiter and dug in. Despite his earlier good manners, the man dug in with a gusto Naruto usually associated with pigs.

He looked at his two crewmates, but Sasuke and Shikamaru looked as bewildered at this turn of events as he himself felt.

He jolted after a particularly loud burp from Ace. The crewmates shrugged at each other and returned to their drinks, watching the Whitebeard pirate devour his meal.

After he was done, Ace flopped back on his chair with a contented sigh.

"Ah, that hit the right spot. Too bad they didn't bring more."

He was _still _hungry? Naruto had a healthy appetite, but this guy was a bottomless pit.

"So Ace, tell me," he began "what's a Whitebeard Pirate doing this side of the Grand Line?"

Ace's countenance immediately turned serious, and he folded his arms in front of his chest.

"I'm … looking for someone." He said eventually. "I guess if anyone has seen him around here, it would be you guys."

Naruto wanted to argue, to say that they'd only been there for two days, but he didn't.

"His name … is Marshall D. Teach. I've heard that he goes by the name Blackbeard nowadays. Ring any bells?"

Naruto did try to remember that name from the day he'd spent here, but drew a complete blank. The name didn't stir anything in his memory. Similarly, Sasuke and Shikamaru shook their heads in the negative.

"No, sorry." Naruto told him.

Ace's grim expression vanished and he let out a boisterous laugh, while his left hand rubbed the back of his head.

"Nah, don't worry. I'd received a tip that he was nearby, but it's okay that you guys don't know anything. Say, what are you drinking? Could I possibly have some of that?"

They ordered some rum for Ace as well. Naruto couldn't help but smile. Ace was kind of weird, but he seemed like an alright guy. He laughed a lot, and for seemingly no reason. The four of them toasted and drunk deeply.

Ace stayed at their table for a while. He ordered more food, and this time so did Naruto, who had gotten hungry watching the guy eat.

Ace finished the bulk of his food first, and when Naruto wasn't looking stole half a chicken from his plate, devouring it as fast as he could.

"What the fuck, you bastard!" Naruto yelled.

"Hey," Ace said through a mouthful "your food, unless properly defended, becomes _my_ food."

"Bastard! I'll kick your ass!"

Ace gulped down the food and glared at Naruto, their foreheads practically butting. Sasuke had his head in hands and hands and muttering denials, while Shikamaru was just drinking and watching the exchange with mirth.

"Bring it, then!"

As they glared at each other, Naruto's hand shot out and grabbed a loaf of bread from Ace's plate, and he stuffed the whole thing in his mouth, doing his best to chew it and not retch. How the hell did Ace do it?

Despite his discomfort, he smirked at the topless man as soon as he swallowed. For a second he looked incredibly angry, but then that expression vanished and he was laughing uproariously.

"You learn quickly, Naruto. Well done."

Ace leaned forward on the table, resting his elbows on it.

"Now, here's what I want to-"

He didn't complete his sentence, because he paused mid-speech. His eyes fluttered and closed, and his whole body pitched forward as he fell on the table, his face landing on his plate.

The three of them sat straighter in alarm at the sudden fall, and Naruto grew increasingly worried when he didn't see any signs of movement from the topless man.

"Do you think he's dead?" Sasuke asked. Naruto poked Ace on the side, and received no response.

"It's possible someone slipped poison in his food." Shikamaru said. "He is, after all, one of Whitebeard's-"

At this point Ace sprang up suddenly, startling the three of them, sitting straight and wiping his face as if nothing had happened.

"Sorry about that, what were we saying?"

"What the hell was that man? What happened to you?" Naruto asked.

Ace rubbed the back of his head, grinning. "Oh, I'm a narcoleptic. Means I can't control when I fall asleep, basically."

"That … must suck."

"Eh, it's not so bad. I'm used to it."

Another round of drinks arrived, and Ace's narcoleptic tendencies were soon forgotten in the merriment of toasting.

Some time later, Naruto saw Temari once again enter the bar. She must have finished her business. Once again, he waved her over.

"Hey, Temari."

His yell drew her attention, and this time she headed straight for them. Once her eyes landed on Ace, though, she froze. She just stood there for a few seconds, staring at the topless man. Naruto was about to admonish her for openly perving, but then her expression turned furious and she marched up to their table with heavy steps. The others had noticed her, as well.

"Temari, what-"

"Fire Fist Ace!" She shouted as soon as she reached their table. Her fists were balled and she was almost shaking. "Portgas D. Ace. You are wanted by the World Government for a slew of crimes. Surrender yourself or fight me."

Naruto's eyes widened and his head whipped to the hat-wearing guy next to him. _This_ was Fire Fist Ace? He'd thought the name merely a coincidence. _This_ was the guy worth 550 million Beli? The second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates?

He looked at his two crewmates to gauge their reactions. Sasuke was staring at Ace with calculating expression, obviously he hadn't made the connection, either. Shikamaru shook his head at him, urging him not to interfere with whatever this was.

For his part, Ace looked at the seething Temari and tilted his head.

"I don't know you." He said.

"That doesn't matter! Will you surrender?"

Ace scratched his cheek. "No, I don't think I will. Are you here for my bounty, then?"

Temari ignored his question. She reached behind her back and procured her weapon, the massive piece of steel, holding it in her hands. "You will resist, then?"

"Eh, fine. If you want to fight me, I guess you can go ahead. We should step outside though, yes?"

What the hell was Temari doing? Did she really think she could defeat Fire Fist Ace?

As Ace rose, so did Naruto. He walked next to Temari and grabbed hold of her elbow.

"Listen Temari, what-"

"Stay out of this, Naruto!" She all but snarled at him. Naruto immediately released her arm, surprised by the vehemence of her tone.

Ace walked out of the bar and lead the way to the edge of town.

"Mah, have I slighted you in some way, miss bounty hunter? I don't recall meeting you before."

"My name is Temari Sabaku. Remember this name, for I will capture you." She said resolutely. Ace shrugged.

They had left Mock Town and reached the edge of the forest. There, on the empty field, both stopped. Naruto and his crew had followed, and stood a small distance away. A few others who had watched the interaction at the bar had also come to see. The rest probably thought that they'd rather be far away when Fire Fist Ace engaged in combat.

"I'm ready, miss bounty hunter. Show me what you can do." Ace called out to Temari.

Piece of metal held in front of her, Temari snarled and charged. Naruto had to give it to her, she was fast. She reached Ace in a second and swung the piece of steel with surprising ease. Ace leaned backwards to avoid the max range swing, and then ducked under Temari's follow up, which was closer.

When next Temari brought the weapon down, Ace used his left hand to push it off-course and downwards, then snapped forward with a quick punch. Temari deftly avoided it and tried to sweep Ace's legs from under him, but he jumped over her foot. As Temari swung around herself she brought her weapon to bear and went to bash Ace on the chest as he was still mid-air from his hop. Ace crossed his arms in front of him to block, and the blow threw him away and on his back. He swiftly rolled backwards and jumped to his feet.

"Your weapon is pretty interesting." He said, tilting his head to the side again. "What else can it do?"

"I'll show you!"

Saying this, Temari held her weapon in both hands and pulled. The sides of it separated, to reveal a material unfolding between them. It was lightly colored and had a big purple dot in the middle.

"A fan?" Ace said, surprised. Naruto didn't fault him, his own eyes had widened at the revelation of Temari's weapon.

"One Star." She declared. Then she brought the gigantic fan backwards and swung it with monstrous strength. "Wind Style, Scythe!"

At the apex of her swing, the air current that the fan created took a distinctive form and rocketed towards Ace, who hurled himself to the side to avoid it. The wind slammed itself into the ground he'd stood on previously, and a deep gouge marred the ground. Ace climbed to his feet and studied the results of Temari's attack with interest.

"Hey, that's pretty dangerous." He said cheerfully.

"Don't mock me!" Temari snarled. She swung her fan again once, twice, and a third time by bringing it downwards.

"Wind Style, Scythe Barrage!"

Ace ducked under the first wind blade and sidestepped the second. He barely managed to turn his torso just so that the third and bigger blade would cut him from head to crotch.

As he was dodging, Temari had closed her fan and jumped at him again, swinging. Lacking time to dodge, Ace raised his hand to block the massive piece of metal with his forearm. If he was hurt by the collision with the weapon, he didn't show.

Temari grunted in anger and brought her fan around for another pass. Ducking under this swing, Ace snapped his right arm forward to jab at Temari's grip on the fan, forcing her to release that arm from the fan with a hiss of pain. Unable to balance the huge weapon correctly with only one hand, the fan's momentum threw Temari off balance. Ace surged forward to press his advantage by aiming a direct punch towards Temari's gut.

Or he would have, if his eyes hadn't fluttered closed and he'd stopped mid stride. He body slowly pitched forward, then back wards, before finally falling on his back and releasing a loud snore.

Temari regained her balance and immediately whipped around to look for her enemy, fan raised in a defensive move for the attack that surely would be coming.

Instead, she saw Fire Fist snoring on the ground.

"He's a narcoleptic." Naruto supplied helpfully. "He randomly falls asleep."

Her expression turned murderous and she let out a snarl of frustration. She walked up to him and landed a massive kick on the pirate's chin that forced his head the other way.

"Wake up, you bastard!" She yelled. "Quit mocking me and fight!"

Ace's eyes opened and he blinked in confusion up at her.

"Oh, we were fighting, weren't we? Sorry."

"Get up." Temari spat.

"I said I was sorry! Geez."

As soon as he was up, Temari unfolded her fan again. This time, she unfolded a bigger part of it to reveal a second purple dot.

"Two Star." She spun the fan around herself and brought it downwards in a wide move. "Wind Style, Crescent Blade!"

A much bigger wind blade than the previous headed towards Ace, who once again focused only on dodging Temari's attacks. She continued to send blade after blade after blade at him, yet Ace continued to dodge, seemingly at the last second and at the slightest possible margins.

"Why. Wont. You. Fight me!" Temari shouted, frustration emanating off of her in waves as she continued her attack.

"I _have _been fighting you." Ace pointed out.

"Bullshit!" She yelled as she suddenly closed the distance between them and swung her still open fan at him. Ace, who hadn't expected it, moved to dodge, but didn't make it in time. The open edge of the fan bit into his chest in a move that should have killed just about anyone.

Rather than blood being sprayed from the wound, flame followed the fan's path. Naruto watched in fascination as flames burst forth from the massive gash on the pirate's chest.

"So that is the power of a logia." Naruto whispered in awe. Though Konoha was rumored to house a logia user or two, he had never seen one in action.

"Hey, you managed to land a solid hit. Good job." Ace congratulated Temari as the wound sealed itself up. "But it won't do you much good, you know. You must have known about the Mera-Mera no Mi before fighting me."

"Shut up!" Temari once again yelled as she walked backwards and opened her fan further, to reveal a third dot. "Three Star! Wind Style, Great Breakthrough!"

This time her swing didn't so much release a blade as it released a hurricane. A gale of twisting and biting winds hurled themselves at the Whitebeard Pirate, who simply stood there waiting for it.

The force of the winds drove him backwards several meters, though he managed to stay on his feet. His body was cut up again and again, flashes of fire where blood and muscle should be erupting all over his body.

At the end of the attack, he stood there, unharmed.

Temari pounced again, swinging her closed fan and destroying Ace's right shoulder. It began to reform on its own.

"Fight me, damn you! Stop making a mockery of me! Fight me seriously!" Temari yelled as she bashed him with her fan.

Ace dodged the last strike and jumped backward. When he did, his body had already fully reformed. He didn't look worse for wear, while Temari was panting heavily and sweating with the exertion.

Ace reaching his hand to the back of his head, under his hat, to scratch at his hair.

"But if I do that…" he said, "you'll die." Not even a note of doubt in his voice. He was simply stating a fact.

Rather than be intimidated, Temari just seemed to get angrier.

"Fight me seriously if you have a shred of honor in your body! Fight me as the second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates!"

Ace's eyes narrowed at this, and the silence grew heavy.

"Very well." He announced, taking his stance for the first time. Slightly hunched, feet apart, and one of his hands pulled back.

Temari prepared her fan. Then Fire Fist exploded.

There were few words Naruto could have used to explain what happened better than that one. Fire erupted from Ace's body, curling around him like an eager pet at his command.

A torrent of flame headed towards Temari in a straight line, and Naruto was sure that she would roast, but she was ready. She swung her fun to her left, creating a massive draft that redirected the fire away from her, and followed it up with another swing that sent a blade of wind at Ace.

However, the pirate was no longer humouring her. He simply let the wind cut through his logia body and leave no damage. He sent another wave of flames at Temari, this time wider.

Seeing the massive wall of flames headed towards her, Temari desperately swung her fan upwards before being swallowed by the fire. Naruto called out, but it was too late.

Once the flames subsided, they revealed Temari, laying on the ground in a sitting position with her legs under her. She was singed and had burns all over her arms and several on her torso, but she was alive. Her last swing had managed to separate the wall of flames ever so slightly, and the worst of it passed her by. By some miracle, her ponytails had not been burned off.

Nevertheless, she couldn't hold her fan anymore, much less swing it. Her hands were on her lap, smoking and shaking. Her face was blackened by soot, with only two clear lines where tears ran unbidden.

Ace smothered his flames and approached the crying woman slowly.

Temari coughed, smoke rising from her lungs. "You've won." She said weakly. "Finish it."

Ace looked at her, a troubled expression on his face.

"I don't _have_ to." He said.

"You've won!" Temari snarled up at him, which seemed to sap all of her remaining energy as she fell into a coughing fit. When she spoke again, her voice was barely audible, and she couldn't lift her gaze from her burned hands.

"Finish it."

Ace regarded her for a few seconds before nodding, though he knew she couldn't see it.

He slipped back into his stance, and his hand was wreathed in flames. Naruto knew Temari would not survive the next attack.

"Fire Fist!" Ace declared as he punched the air in front of him. A massive conflagration erupted, heading straight for Temari, ready to devour her and leave nothing in its wake. For her part, she'd simply closed her eyes and held her breath.

Naruto had seen enough. Red energy erupted around him, and he vanished from his position. A split second later, the fire attack reached Temari.

Sasuke and Shikamaru were forced to protect their eyes from the heat and the light, being so close to the attack.

When it was safe to look again, they saw Naruto standing over Temari's form, red energy sticking to him like a second skin and forming another layer over his natural one. His eyes were red and slitted, his nails had turned to claws and a pair of red tails made of the same energy swished behind him of their own accord. He had protected Temari. Burns along his hands and shoulders, from where he'd redirected the flames, were already healing.

"Enough." He said in a low growl, his voice sounding much deeper than his usual cheerful tone. If Fire Fist was intimidated at all by Naruto's display, he didn't show it.

"I have to end the fight. You heard her."

"The fight _is _over." Naruto snarled. "If you still want to fight, _I_ will be your opponent."

He didn't really believe that he could defeat Fire Fist, but he would fight, nonetheless. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sasuke and Shikamaru tense, ready to spring to action. He knew that if a fight broke out Sasuke would rush to help him while Shikamaru would get Temari out of there. He trusted both of them.

Ace didn't say anything for a few seconds, watching Naruto from under the brim of his hat. In the end, he relaxed from his stance and nodded once.

Naruto released the partial transformation, allowing the energy to dissipate into thin air, but didn't take his eyes off of the pirate.

"I'll be going now." Ace said. "I think I've overstayed my welcome."

Naruto nodded at this.

"It was fun meeting you guys. If you ever find yourselves in the New World, look me up, yeah? If you namedrop me to one of Pops' people, he should direct you to me."

"We'll do that." And he wasn't lying. Ace seemed like an alright kind of guy.

At least, when he wasn't burning his future crewmates alive. Naruto was quite irked with him at the moment.

Ace waved over his head as he walked away. He seemed to reconsider, as he stopped and looked behind him.

"And Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Take care of her." He said, nodding towards Temari's catatonic form. "She's strong."

"I know."

"Alright. Later."

Naruto didn't stand to watch the man leave. He turned and kneeled by Temari's side, checking her over to take stock of her injuries.

She was, miraculously, still conscious. When Naruto gently lifted her chin, her eyes snapped to his, unfocused.

"You should…" She croaked out. "You should have let him kill me."

Naruto gently placed his finger on her lips, shushing her.

"Hush, now. It's gonna be alright, you hear? You're going to be fine. Sleep, now."

Temari had already passed out before he'd finished speaking.

**~N~**

When Temari woke up, she did so with a pained groan. For a while, all she could think about was that she ached _everywhere_. When she tried to move her hand to rub at her eyes, her hand fell back onto the bed she was lying and she cried out in pain. Her arms must be pretty bad if she can't move them at all without screaming in pain.

"Easy, now." She heard a voice she could vaguely recognize. "We cleaned your wounds and bandaged them, but none of us are very good doctors, so take it easy."

Temari finally opened her eyes, and realized that she had no idea where she was. She was in a bed in a room with wooden walls that she'd never seen before. From the way everything swayed slightly, she guessed she was in a ship.

Her eyes focused on the source of the voice, sitting on a chair by her bedside.

"Naruto…" She croaked out, her voice still hoarse, and fell into a coughing fit.

"Easy." The blond repeated. Temari stopped coughing, and examined herself. She was covered in bandages everywhere except for her head.

"You undressed me?" She said, rage once again finding its way to her voice. Naruto only raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

"You have nothing I haven't seen before, you know. Besides, would you have preferred we let your wounds get infected and stay untreated?"

Temari couldn't say much to that. It hurt to think. She allowed her head to fall back onto the pillow with a groan.

When Naruto spoke again, his voice was grave.

"Why did you fight Fire Fist, Temari?"

"For … the bounty." She said between heavy breaths.

"Don't give me that!" Naruto said, his voice unusually harsh, causing Temari to flinch and hiss in pain.

"Sorry." He said. "I'm not buying it, though. You're not stupid. You must have known you couldn't win. Why did you fight him?"

"None … of your… business."

"I have a theory and I want to share it with you, yeah? Answer me with yes or no. Okay, here I go. You knew you couldn't beat him, is that true?"

Temari stayed quiet for a long time, not wanting to play his game. Eventually though, she couldn't take his piercing stare and nodded.

"Those pirates, they didn't attack you, did they?"

Temari shook her head no.

"You went looking for them, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"You hunt pirates with bounties. You challenged Fire Fist Ace as soon as you saw him. You practically begged him to finish you off. Temari … do you want to die?" By the end, his voice had softened to barely audible levels.

She couldn't raise her voice, so she simply nodded. Her eyes were closed, but a few tears escaped anyway.

"But … _why_?"

She found some energy to answer. Sadness, anger, she couldn't distinguish them anymore.

"And why do you care?" She shouted, not letting the tears stop her. "We've met once! You don't know me so don't you dare judge me! Just take your nose out of my business and let me die."

Naruto was frowning, obviously troubled. Temari's anger had vanished as suddenly as it appeared.

"What happened, Temari?"

A loaded question. It could have a dozen different meanings. A hundred. Yet, Temari realized what he was asking. And why should she answer him? She met him two days ago for the first time. She owed him nothing.

Or did she?

He had saved her. Even if she'd been trying to get herself killed, he had stepped in the way and saved her.

"I had … two younger brothers." She began, voice subdued.

"Had?" Naruto prompted gently when the silence stretched too long.

"We lived in Alabasta, in a northern village of little significance." She continued. "I was the eldest, so I took care of both of them."

"Your parents?"

Temari shook her head at the mention of parents, and continued as if she hadn't heard the question.

"Five years ago, Crocodile came to our village. He … he took my youngest brother, Gaara." She stopped, her voice catching in her throat, fresh tears spilling at the memories.

"But, why?"

"Gaara was … Gaara had eaten the Akuma-Akuma no Mi, Model: Ichibi. He was a Demon user. His Devil Fruit allowed him to control sand."

She saw Naruto freeze, but didn't stop. If she stopped now, she didn't know if she could continue.

"Crocodile took him. Gaara couldn't fight. He was so young, he could barely control his powers at all. He stood no chance. And who would believe me? Nobody. Crocodile was considered a hero."

Temari paused, gathering her thoughts and cursing her injured arms for her inability to wipe at her eyes. To her surprise, Naruto was pulled out of his stupor enough to gently dab a small tower at her cheeks.

"My second brother, Kankuro, died in a sandstorm two years ago. He was part of the Rebellion."

"Was it Crocodile?"

Temari shook her head. "I don't know. He's not the only source of sandstorms in Sandy Island, but it is likely."

"So what did you do?"

Temari let out a dry laugh. "What could I do? I had nothing left. No family, no friends, nothing. My brothers, for whom I had cared for all my life, had been stolen from me. I trained, tried to become strong to get my revenge on Crocodile."

"And then Straw Hat came along."

"And then Straw Hat came along. He revealed Crocodile's plots and sent him off to Impel Down, so now I don't even have revenge. I have nothing, Naruto, can you understand that? No reason to live, no reason to go on, nothing to go back to or look forward to."

Her whispered tirade done, Temari closed her eyes again. It was tiring to say all of that, but at the same time liberating. This was the first time she'd opened up to anyone.

"So that's why you've been going after strong people. To find someone strong enough to kill you. And I ruined that."

Naruto was quiet for a while, and Temari had nothing else to say. As soon as she was healed, Naruto would release her and she would continue her pointless existence, looking for some way to end it all.

"Well, I'll take responsibility for it."

Her eyes snapped open. "What?"

"If you need a reason to live, live for us. Live for _me_. Join my crew. You're strong, you can help us. Help me achieve my goals, and I promise you that in the process you'll find a dream of your own."

Temari was speechless, trying to process what she had heard. Did Naruto mean that? Why? Why would he want someone like her?

"Are you … serious?"

"Yes."

"But … why me? I- … I'm not as strong as you think. I couldn't-… I couldn't protect them. I can't protect _anything_."

She was crying again, but harsher this time. She didn't even know what she was feeling anymore. Happiness that someone accepted her, despair over her inability to protect anything she loved. Her family, her village, her own country, she had been unable to do anything to help any of them.

Naruto had risen from his chair and gently sat on the bed next to her. His hands went around her shoulders gently, not wanting to aggravate her wounds, and he gave her a hug that spoke volumes.

"It's gonna be okay, Temari. It wasn't your fault, you hear? None of it was your fault. It _wasn't_ your fault. We'll be here for you. All of us will be here for each other. You won't be alone anymore."

Temari found the strength to raise her arms and hold onto the body next to her like a lifeline. Her wounds ached and had probably opened again, her thoughts were running a mile a minute, her eyes could not stop producing tears, but one thought was clear in her head.

"Fine. Yes, yes I will join you."

Naruto patted her back, trying to be as comforting as he could.

"You'll be okay. You're going to be fine."

And she would. Eventually, her wounds would heal and she would be fine.

Temari weakly pushed him, and Naruto took the hint, releasing the hug and stepping back, looking at her. She had the most curious smile on her face.

"Naruto … thank you."

They all would be.

**~N~**


End file.
